FAME
by The Titaness
Summary: After the untimely death of Alder, the great Unovian champion, the young Touko accepts her inheritance of his pokemon-The Greil Mercenaries-and starts her Gym Leader Challenge. However, a mighty chilling wind is slowly creeping around Unova with a mysterious youth not too far behind. Set in AU. Some things may not correspond to the rules of the Pokemon universe.
1. The Champ is here! Part One

_ The Champion Alder stepped out among the bright lights of the stadium with a pleased grin stretching his features and showcasing his wrinkles. He was a man in his early sixties but felt twenty years younger with his wild, flaming hair and traditional Unovian garments designated specifically for an important elder. His coal eyes remained steady as thousands and thousands of expecting orbs focused upon him and only him. He stepped out from the darkness and waved to his people, summoning roars of thunder in the chant of his name. His aged nose smelled the thick adrenaline in the air, making his pulse race and beads of sweat swelter on his distorted brow. The beams burned against his skin, the roars deafened his hearing, and his eyes grew magnetized to his archrival standing just yards in front of him._

_ Alder was the prestigious Champion of Unova and the oldest of the Pokemon Champions in the world. Almost fifty years ago, he started his journey—a long and winding one—with Slim—his innocent and loyal Snivy. Within blinks, days turned into weeks; weeks into months; months into years; and years into decades. Eventually, their time together came to a standstill. The aged Slim—now a mighty Serperior—caught ill and died soon from it. The toll impacted Alder greatly. He realized his faults and turned over a new leaf, starting with choosing Greil—a sturdy and disciplined Onix—as his second starter. Time passed and eventually Greil evolved into a mighty Steelix, then Alder collected more Pokémon and formed an unstoppable team named the Greil Mercenaries._

_ Recently, the Pokemon League called him back from his soul-searching travels to compete in the annual Trial of Champions as the final test for any challenger. He graciously accepted the offer, acknowledging the fact that he might enter. The event lasted for several weeks and hosted a string of festivals in the nearby city of Nimbasa. Millions gathered for this very event while more millions watched from the television within their homes. They watched in awe for their quasi-retired Champion as he greeted them for the first time in a decade._

_ Alder calmed his nerves just as the announcer broadcasted the introduction of the match. The crowd died down a bit, but to the Champion, it felt as if the roars drowned out completely. For __he__ was there. A few yards ahead on the other side of the stadium, the slightly younger Ghetsis Harmonia glared back at him, his visible red eye making Alder sweat harder. His opponent was extremely formidable and very wise. Even the Greil Mercenaries were threatened by his tactics and team. The battle ahead was going to be arduous, draining, and epic._

_ "Medeus, take charge!" Ghetsis tossed a Dusk Ball into the arena and—from its confines—a mighty Hydriegon appeared in a great flash of white light. Medeus stretched his head back and roared viciously, baring his fangs to Alder and commanding his two lesser heads to chomp on thin air, spitting out acids that peck and gnawed at the smoothened paint of the concrete floor._

_Ghetsis smirked—his prized Pokémon never failed in starting a battle successfully. His strategy was to intimidate his opponent with appearance then amplify that fear with swift and powerful attacks in wave after wave of each other until the prey is reduced to nothing. Medeus was the perfect starter for a brutal assault that left so many trainers in ruins within minutes._

_But Alder remained steadfast and pensive for a few moments, analyzing the situation and staring down that Hydriegon. He was slightly intimidated by the dark dragon—he seemed bigger from the last battle Alder had against Ghetsis—but his aged hand steadily gripped onto the Heavy Ball clinging to a royal rope hanging from his neck._

_The air was still with tension as his hand moved and froze upon that Pokeball. The crowd both in the stadium, outside in the streets, and the viewers at home held their breaths in anticipation of their Champion's first Pokemon. Eyes glued to the flaming-haired man, eyes that were piercing, judging, and eagerly noting even his tiniest twitch. He felt all of those eyes burn through his skin and into his old bones, sending waves of adrenaline straight to his brain._

_With one swift movement, he detached the Heavy Ball from its place and tossed it into the field after pressing the small button of its core. "Come help me, Greil!" He called just before the Heavy Ball opened and released a thick blob of white light which formed into a massive golden Steelix. Greil proudly stood over his enemy, at a grand thirty feet in length, and roared while rotating his indestructible body. The rafters shook from his commanding bellow, causing Medeus and Ghetsis to recoil from Greil's massive height and power. His body shimmered golden from the lights reflecting off at marvelous angles, but upon closer inspection, one could see the endless scars, dings, and scrapes moving with his body from past, furious battle experiences. He slammed his massive jaws closed, creating shockwaves throughout the stadium. The crowd screamed their emotions upon the titanic glory of the Champion's second starter._

_Ghetsis focused his glare to concentrate on his faulty strategy and mentally surpass the superior intimidation staring him down. "Ghetsis," He narrowed his eyes at Alder once the announcer ceased speaking, "I've learned much from our past battles. You did not expect me to use the Commander so suddenly, did you? Your intimidation tactics are worthless. Try fighting fairly this time." Greil prepared for his orders by shifting his weight to make himself lighter as Medeus began to exhale searing breath from his main head. Ghetsis, however, simply smirked at his opponent, catching Alder off guard and curious as to his true motives and tricks._

_"My dear friend, Alder, I've expected this from the very beginning!" He outstretched his arms to his sides and grinned widely, a look of insanity in his visible eye. "Greil is nothing to sneeze at, but…I have a trump card. Once he falls, the rest will follow suit."_

_"Are you so sure about that? It will be no easy feat!"_

_"Enough talk! Command your Steelix to move so that I may take the first step to my glorious triumph!" He brushed his hair out of his face as Alder calmed his nerves and planned a series of steps to carry out the battle._

_"Greil! Knock him down with your Iron Tail!" Greil charged forth with speeds matching a freight train as his tail turned white and acquired a radiant glow. He swung it forth with titanic force that shattered the air it cut, but Medeus dodged just in time and floated away from the snake's reach. The Iron Tail crashed into the earth, causing Ghetsis to brace himself for waves of tremors before giving orders to Medeus high above._


	2. The Spark

The television replayed the epic events as Alder's grandchildren fervently watched every move and order he gave. Touya laid sprawled upon his twin sister's bed and religiously ran his fingers through his hair until his Trainer hat fell from his head. His brown eyes studied his grandfather's pose as adrenaline rushed through his body just from the massive sight of Greil that could not possibly be caught on one camera. Touko, on the other hand, sat in front of her bed and hugged her knees as the first attack connected with Greil's steel body. He had been hit by a scorching Fire Blast, causing Alder concern. However, the great Commander retaliated with a skillful Stone Edge that knocked out Medeus in one swift blow. Both grandchildren cheered after the first victory but fell silent once Ghetsis summoned his second Pokémon—the immortal Bisharp, Zelgius. The young adults held their breaths during the next close battle, but it proved to be too much on Greil, and he finally fell before Zelgius.

Seconds after Alder's recalling of Greil, Touya's mobile phone started its soft tune, but he answered it before Touko could even notice. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling as Touko quickly hit the pause button on the DVD system. "Yeah? Hello? Who is it?"

"It's Cheren. Do you have a minute? Is Touko there with you?"

"Yeah. She's here. But, no, we can't hang out today. We're helping to clean the house. Family is coming over tomorrow, and my mom's a bit irritated as it is."

"Oh, then it can wait. How _is_ your mom, anyway? I'm sorry that your grandfather died. He was a legend. How long ago was it?"

"About a month ago. It's been too quiet here. Maybe I can get Touko to do my work so we could hang out." Touko quickly turned and smacked her little brother on the shoulder, causing him to flinch and glare upside-down at her. "Ouch! What was that for? I was just kidding!" She playfully stuck her tongue at him, and Cheren's snickering could be heard through the phone. "Anyway, tell me. What happened? I figure it's better for you to tell me than Bel. I won't be able to understand a word she says."

"You know how we've been talking and planning about a journey with Pokemon?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well, I just got my starter today! It's a Tepig!" Touya's eyes went wide, causing slight curiosity in Touko's countenance. He quickly turned to rest on his stomach again as he switched ears for his phone.

"No way! Don't leave without me! How did you get one?"

"It was a present from the Professor from the town over. You know, that Pokemon Handling Agency. I heard they have one for you, too, but for some reason, it's been delayed. They said they had a big shipment to fulfill, or something. Do you remember what you picked? At school, I mean. Remember the very last question on the final exams? The one where it asked you to pick a Pokemon from three? Well, it turns out, if you passed, you get to keep that Pokemon! I've named mine Ganon. I can't wait to train him. Eventually, I'll become the champion—I just know it!"

"Get in line! Everyone knows that _I'm_ championship material! It's in my blood, after all! You just wait until I get mine! The first thing I'm doing is battling with you!"

"Good. You and Touko will be an excellent test for me. I'm aiming to be the most powerful Trainer in the world! That championship is mine!"

"Dream on!" A knock erupted on the door, and immediately, Touko turned the television off before their mother entered the room. She seemed frazzled with housework and troubled with the recent death as Touya quickly cut his conversation short upon being glared at. He tucked his phone back into his pocket and snatched his hat away from Touko before straightening his vest and sitting upright.

"Touko, Touya," She started quietly as if she was out of breath with running around and sweat poured down her face, "please come help me downstairs, and Touya," She turned to the young man and firmly placed her hands on her hips, "I just made that bed! You better fix it before you come down. I expect you to straighten yourselves up for tomorrow. Your grandfather's last will and testament is being settled then everyone's coming back here. I want you to vacuum the rugs and handle the laundry. I need to start dinner." She quickly exited the room, with Touko following and Touya sloppily and exhaustedly fixing the sheets of his sister's bed. Touko soon entered again with the vacuum and stealthily swiped his hat away from him, causing a small struggle to create between the two.

"Come on! Give it back! You're folding it!"

"Tell me what you were talking about. It sounded important."

"Gimme my hat first!" She quickly pressed the hat upon Touya's head, causing his light brown bangs to hide his eyes. He hastily removed the blindfold and glared at his devilish sister while straightening out his prized possession. "Well, Cheren called and told me he already got his first Pokemon today. And so did Bel. There, happy?" He spotted the shock within her eyes that quickly transformed into joy.

"Really? So that means ours are coming too, right?"

"Well, not quite. Cheren said that the Agency had a large shipment to fulfill so ours might be a little delayed."

"Ours? Why ours?" She seemed a little taken back as she set up the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the floor of loose articles. "Did they give an estimate on when we'll be getting ours?" He shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the bed, only to realize his mistake and jump back to his feet.

"Cheren didn't say anything. We'll probably be getting ours in about a week, I think."

"So, what did Cheren get?" She leaned against the vacuum cleaner; her white shirt lifted up on her body, revealing part of her slim curves and inner bellybutton.

"He got a Tepig."

"And Bel?"

"I don't know. Mom walked in before I could find out."

"I don't hear any vacuuming up there!" Their mother called out from the second floor, her voice laced with anger and slight frustration. Touya quickly left the room once Touko started vacuuming every square inch of rug upon the third floor.

Ever since they first laid their eyes on a Pokémon, both Touko and Touya aspired to become Pokemon Masters and to have as much skill as their grandfather. They entered the Trainer's School not too far off from Nuvema Town and passed every course, with Touko earning the higher scores. It was in this Trainer's School where they met Cheren and Bel, who also aspired to become great Trainers; however, Bel gradually became interested in the popular Pokémon Musicals in Nimbasa City and Contests hosted throughout Unova.

In the end, they passed their final exams, but both siblings chose the same starter Pokemon! They had birthed a stubborn rivalry on the very day they dreamt the same ambition, and they had fervently hoped to compete against each other in various competitions to help each other grow stronger. However, no matter how hard Touya struggled, Touko always prevailed.


	3. Good Trainers

That night after the commotion of cleaning until the house was utterly spotless, Touko and Touya quickly tucked themselves in and turned off the lights, but neither of them could feign sleep, even long after the hour of midnight. They lay still in their respective beds and mindlessly stared at the dark ceiling with thoughts buzzing around of their future Pokemon. However, their minds still kept drifting about their grandfather who recently passed and the great times they shared as a family, but they vividly replayed the video of his last match against Ghetsis just months before now.

It was a fate-defying close call—both were down to their remaining Pokemon out of six. The landscape was torn and both Pokemon were exhausted almost to the point where they faced with the fate of dropping dead. But Alder was stuck with the shorter stick; Ghetsis's Cofagrigus, Majora, had poisoned Alder's ambitious Quilava, Ike—who evolved into his final form just a week before his Trainer's death. With one final Shadow Ball from Majora, Ike was almost knocked unconscious. It was the most brutal battle Alder had ever participated in. It was too horrific for his old yet kind heart to suffer through. Before the finishing blow fired from Majora's ghost-like hands, Alder quickly grabbed the towel hanging from his shoulder and tossed it into the ring, stunning every spectator in the stadium, city, and at home. The crowd gasped and chattered viciously with each other; the announcer stuttered with his report; the viewers cried out their disbeliefs; time stood still.

Alder had never lost a battle this extreme for several decades, but he felt no regret for his actions. He rushed blindly into the battlefield, despite the match not officially ending, and caught the trembling Quilava in his arms before he faltered to the ground. Ike was near unconscious by the poison and other injuries that made Alder curse himself for being so reckless. He would never forgive himself if another of his precious partners died because of his prideful foolishness. To keep his beloved Pokemon awake, he repeatedly called out his name until he was on the brink of tears, screaming for the nurses who quickly arrived on the scene. However, he had difficulty in letting Ike go. The poor beast closed his hurt sapphire eyes and lay still in his Trainer's arms, coaxing Alder's tears to fall. Nurse Joy carefully intervened; she took Ike from his arms and gingerly placed him on a stretcher.

Within minutes, panic spread throughout the stadium, the city, and the homes, and through the hearts of all who watched the scene unfold before their eyes. Alder had no time to waste—he _had_ to stand by his Pokemon's side. He left the scene alongside the nurses, but he could not contain his flow of tears upon seeing Ike's battered body.

Ghetsis, on the other hand, smirked upon seeing that he was the victor of his long awaited match with Alder. He recalled Majora and accepted the coveted Champion Cup of Unova and title of Unova Champion.

That image still haunted the grandchildren's mind. They felt angry and frustrated with the result, yet they felt horribly concerned for Ike, whom they never saw after that match or heard of again. They assumed that another one of their grandfather's beloved Pokémon perished and their grandfather now living peacefully in Heaven with both his Pokemon at his side once more.

Touko turned on her side to stare out of the window. Sleep was out of the question. The image of that small body bloody, bruised, and broken—but the poor thing still kept going—was too much to bear. She felt a tear leak out of her eye and dive into the pillow. She knew Touya was awake and watching her, but she refused to look at him in fear of breaking down into tears.

"Hey, Touko, are you still awake?" He whispered very softly in a calm voice that she wished she had. It always quelled her emotions no matter how frazzled or upset she became, but it was something only Touya possessed as replacement of her impatience. "Touko?" She took deep breaths and wiped her eyes upon the blankets before turning over fully and facing her brother. Through the darkness, she was sure he could tell she was crying—there was usually this glossy sparkle in her blue eyes that always gave that away. She regretted seeing that video, but she knew if she told her mom, she would never hear the end of her mistake. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Her voice smoothed out, to her surprise, as she brushed her brunette bangs from her dampened eyes and held back more tears.

"Because usually you hit me if I ever try to talk to you while you're sleeping. So, what's up?" Touko remained silent and quickly closed her eyes to block out that image, but it kept replaying in an endless stream in her mind. This caused Touya some alarm, especially when he heard her quiet sobs and saw sparkling trails of liquid upon her cheeks. "Touko?" He quickly sat up to get a better look, but he found himself climbing out of bed and kneeling on the floor right in front of her. "Touko, what's wrong? What's up with you? Was it that video? I told you it would be too scary for you. Maybe you aren't cut out to be a Trainer after all."

"Shut up! Shut up, you idiot! Shut up!" She snatched her dampened pillow and quickly struck him multiple times until he retreated to a safe distance. She dropped the weapon and hugged her knees while sitting up then cried into them at full force. Touya regained his courage and wind to approach Touko and sat next to her on the bed.

"Seriously, was it that video? I bet that Pokemon's fine."

"How do you know that? You saw how bad it looked! Grandpop never talked about that Pokemon! We don't know if it's okay. What's going to happen to them, anyway? They don't have a Trainer anymore."

"Maybe they'll be released into the wild? They're strong enough to survive, right?"

"That's horrible!" She began to wipe her eyes on the sheets and smacked him on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. "How can you say that? They grew up with a human. I don't think they'll be able to survive by themselves."

"Then where will they go?" He quickly rubbed his shoulder to alleviate the pain while she stretched her legs out and stared down to her feet.

"I don't know! Maybe some Pokemon Daycare thing somewhere? They'll take good care of them."

"But they're battling Pokemon. They _need_ Trainers. I'm sure they'll end up fine, even that Quilava. It's rare for a Pokemon to die after a battle, right?"

"I guess. Why didn't Grandpop tell us what happened? He told Mom he gave up battling for good."

"I don't know. It's kind of bad, too. He was a great Trainer. I guess he called it quits after Quilava got hurt. I don't blame him. He lost one of his Pokemon before. Loosing another is way too much. I bet that Quilava became the death of him—uh-oh!" She readied another pillow to pulverize him but he slipped away after one blow to the head.

"Touya, you idiot! Shut up!" She threw the weapon at him once he retreated to his own bed then gathered the two lost pillows.

"Ouch! Why do you keep hitting me all the time? What did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing. It's just fun to hit you. But I don't want to talk about that Quilava anymore. Or any other of his Pokemon either." She turned over and stared at the clock. It was about two in the morning and neither had gone to sleep. "Let's just sleep. It's way past midnight."

"You know, when I get my first Pokemon, I'm going to take my first step to becoming Champion someday." Touko snickered loudly, causing Touya to glare venomously at the back of her head. "What's so funny?"

"You are." She turned to face him. "You seriously think that you're champion material?"

"Yeah, so? It's in my blood."

"And what about me? We have the same blood."

"But I'm a guy." It was Touko's turn to glare at her brother until he dived under the covers to protect himself. "And guys are Champions."

"Girls can be Champions, too." Touya laughed loudly, enough to make Touko swat him again with a pillow. "It's true!"

"Fat chance! I'll become Champion even before you can get eight badges! I'll be just like Grandpop."

"Yeah, right! I have more of a chance because I learned more than you at school. I know what I'm doing when it comes to Pokemon."

"We'll just see who's better."

"Fine, but let's see who can wake up earlier. Good Trainers always get up early and hit the road at dawn."


	4. Last Will and Testament

Touya and Touko entered the Building of Law with their mother and other family members, some weeping and wiping their eyes with tissues packed inside of bags. The twins remained silent throughout the whole trip to Accumula Town and only spoke if spoken to. For a short time, they felt a solemn excitement for the news of their grandfather's last will and testament, but they expected nothing to be given to them. They quietly took their seats in front of the lawyer's desk; however, the grandchildren had to sit in the back row for the adults to settle some legal matters.

Touko fiddled with her hair with her nerves on the edge. Her pulse pounded for the announcement of the will, but her mind could not shake the image of that poor Quilava lying still on the stretcher board. Touya, however, smiled inwardly to himself with dreams of becoming a Champion one day and finally beating Touko at something they both excelled in.

The time came when the lawyer retrieved the will from his desk and read it aloud. The first few things were distributed equally among the adults, even their mother received a few items and blessings from their Grandfather, but his Pokemon were never even mentioned, until there was a break in the lawyer's speech. The very last thing scribbled on the list proved to be difficult to decipher until he took a magnifying glass and pressed it down against the table. "Your father, Alder—he had terrible penmanship. I can barely make out these words. But, fortunately, we've scanned the document and printed it out—typed." He opened a drawer and pulled out another, typed document and began reading the last part aloud. "Ah, yes, much clearer:

"_And my beloved Greil Mercenary Pokemon, all twelve of them, I give to my darling and capable grandchild_,"

Touko's and Touya's eyes widened with shock—one of them was about to receive something very dear to their grandfather. However, Touya smirked secretly with the pride of being a Champion-to-be and glanced over to Touko, who seemed quite nervous yet amazed. The lawyer cleared his throat, shattering the tension building up and suffocating the siblings. They waited patiently, but time seemed to tick forever before the lawyer could read the final words printed on the document of fate.

"_Little Touko. May they bring all my of love and joy on swift wings._"

The adults sharply gasped and chatted among themselves as Touko turned to Touya and spotted the disappointment in his eyes. Her eyes turned wide with excitement, and a smile forced its way across her lips, but she strongly hugged her brother, catching him off guard. This forced him to smile as well and hug his sibling back, despite his disappointment and frustration toward his grandfather. The lawyer cleared his throat again, silencing the room and focusing all attention and eyes upon his face as he rescanned the document's end. "He left a little message at the end:

"_To my grandchildren: You are both coming of the adult age. Pokemon are your friends. They will help you to grow and mature into adulthood. They are our invaluable, life-long partners. And Touya, don't feel discouraged. You can become Champion if you work hard enough. Touko, you have a great responsibility on your shoulders. My Mercenary Pokemon will test you in my stead. It would be in your best interest to take the Pokemon League Challenge of Unova and write your own story. I wish you two the best of luck! Have fun!_

That is the end of the document." He placed the paper on the desk as the adults chatted among themselves once more, some stealing glances at Touko and her nervous yet excited smile.


	5. The Lottery

A few days later, the grandchildren's relatives returned to their respective homes after claiming what was left to them from the late head of the family. Touko, however, had not received those Pokemon promised to her, but the excitement continued to grow inside of her head. She often found herself staring out of windows, waiting for something to arrive—some Pokemon of all shapes and sizes—but nothing came from sunrise to sunset. Touya already received his intelligent Snivy and named him Merric while brimming with an eagerness to begin his long awaited journey to the Pokemon League. However, he stayed within Nuvema Town and waited along with Touko for the awaited Pokemon for the first few days before training Merric against Cheren's Ganon, but he had many difficult challenges in defeating his zealous rival.

Touko attended to her desk within her shared room and looked through a digital camera filled with memories of her grandfather. It showed none of his Pokemon, however. She quickly skipped through photos of herself, Touya, Bel, Cheren, and her mother to spend more time upon the images of the former Unova Champion. He looked so peaceful back then, as he always did. He absolutely adored Pokemon as his friends and enjoyed spending all the time he had to play with them. He even taught his Shinx to roll over by example, earning a few purrs and chirps from the eager, young hatchling. He treated his Pokemon as if they were his own children and often let Touko and Touya play with the gentle ones a bit.

A knock came to the door, and the memories vanished almost immediately once Touko looked up to Touya, who entered from the door with a small smile upon his face. "You have a package downstairs. I put it on the dining room table for you. I was told not to open it until you came. It has your name on it and everything. It was kind of heavy, though."

"They're here? The Pokemon are here? Let's go see them!" Touko instantly ran down the stairs, with Touya hot on her heels and matched her excitement. They swiftly dashed through the house and arrived in the quiet dining room. Cheren and Bel waited in their seats for their friends, each very curious, but Bel naturally showed it with a large smile and giddy eyes.

"Oh, and I invited Bel and Cheren here. Well, Bel kind of invited herself over."

"Touko! Touya! I can't believe it!" She loudly chirped, and she dashed over to Touko, and she tightly hugged her out of excitement. She found it hard to contain herself as she released Touko and yanked her to the table. "I _really_ can't believe it! We finally got our Pokemon! And you inherited your grandpa's team! Hurry! Open it! I can't wait to see them!" She claimed her seat again and giggled at Cheren who simply smiled in return, but he rolled his eyes when she looked away. Unable to wait much longer, Touko took her place before the large package as Touya rested himself upon a seat and eagerly watched her fondle with the taping. However, she paused for a few moments, causing her friends to shift their eyes from the package to her face with concern.

"Wait. Should we really be doing this? Shouldn't we wait until Mom's home from work? What if these Pokemon make a mess of the house? Or if they run away? Should we call the pound if they do that?" Within seconds, the other junior Trainers laughed at her questions, forcing her to smile as well fiddle with the tape once more.

"No, I got the okay from Mom to open the package. We just have to be careful if we let them out of their Pokeballs."

"And maybe we can test them out by battling." Cheren added while pushing his glasses further up upon his nose, but he caught himself leaning up upon his elbows just as Touko removed the longest snake of tape from the top flaps. He peered over Bel's shoulder while his eager and ambitious twin opened the package and removed multiple layers of bubble wrap until she reached a small yet ancient chest.

It was the same chest that Alder found buried deep within the Relic Castle, hidden underneath thick blankets of sand in the middle of the Desert Resort. He found that it was filled with ancient coins and relics from Barbaric Unova thousands of years ago. However, he gave the relics away to Lenora's museum in Nacrene City before keeping the actual chest, cleaning it out with hard soap and restoring polish and using it as a keepsake guardian. The day before he died, he recalled all of his Pokemon for the last time and placed the twelve Pokeballs within the confines of the chest. He never touched them again.

Touko, as if it was a bomb, carefully removed the chest from the package. Touya and Cheren quickly removed everything that was blocking her way until she carefully set it down upon the oak table. She traced the golden contours of the container with eyes in awe at its antiquity while her nimble fingers encountered a sort of lock. She frowned; the chest refused to open without this key, dropping the hopes of all but mostly Bel for she became mesmerized by its very appearance. "Ah, it needs a key. Grandpop didn't say anything about a key, did he?" She turned to Touya who slowly shook his head and looked towards Cheren just as the raven-haired Trainer leaned back in disappointment.

"Damn. I was hoping to see some seriously powerful Pokemon. There's got to be a way to open it. Maybe we can get a hammer and some kind of a wedge?" He spoke in a casual tone while he straightened his wrist collars.

"Oh, my dad has a crowbar at home!" Bel chirped and quickly stood to her feet; her chair stumbled backwards and broke the stressed silence. "If I can go get it, maybe we can open the thing? I'll be right back!" Before she could leave the room, Touya blocked her off, satisfying everyone's needs for safety. He looked to his shared room with a small and hopeful smile upon his lips as he remembered his grandfather's generosity and tactful planning.

"Wait, I remember something! Grandpop gave me a weird-looking key as a birthday present one year. He never told me what it opens, but it looked as old as that chest. My mom kept it in the curio for safe-keeping. I bet it's still there. I'll go get it!" He raced upstairs as Bel returned to the table, but none of the teenagers could sit still for any given moment. Touko tapped her fingers against the chest's roof in anticipation until Touya returned from the hallway with a burnished key in his hand and hope in his smile. "All right, I found it! Now, let's get this chest opened." He impatiently inserted the aged key into the lock and turned it clockwise so that a click was heard then he removed it. Cheren was now on his feet, eager to see what awaited them within the chest as Touko's excited palms gripped the sides and slowly opened the lid. The light finally hit the contents for the first time in weeks, and the fresh air of the house swept through the volume of the chest, dampening the soft, silk pillows gently cradling twelve up-kept Pokeballs, each with their own design.

The first to catch everyone's eyes was the radiant Crystal Pokeball reflecting the light in the forms of multiple rainbows. It glittered in many particles of white and multicolored specs, twinkling in the eyes of Bel, who quickly snatched it before the others could respond. "It's so beautiful! I wonder what kind of Pokemon is in here. It's probably a beautiful one, like a Milotic!"

"Calm down, Bel." Touko responded in a steady voice laced with matching excitement. "There are others to see. Put that one back. I'll open them up later. Besides, I think he left me a manual, too." Bel returned the Crystal Pokeball, and the teenagers resumed looking once more.

There were eleven others they noticed, but none were as shiny as the first, yet they were still intriguing. Touko and Bel became glued to a Heal Ball resting in the corner and wondered what cute Pokemon hid inside. A Clefairy? A Chansey?

Touya became fascinated with the Safari Ball resting just beside the Fast Ball Cheren currently inspected. They traded ideas of the Pokemon between themselves, often suggesting powerful and swift ones that could knock the wind out of any opponent.

Next, Cheren noticed a Heavy Ball resting as if it was exhausted from continuous use. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was the exact same Heavy Ball used during Alder's last match against Ghetsis.

Touko quietly gasped when she spotted a Cherish Ball leaning against the Heavy Ball. She assumed it must have been a particularly precious Pokémon to her grandfather.

Cheren grew astonished once he found a Premier Ball sitting proudly among the others. Only an _extremely_ rare Pokemon could be caught with such ease in that type of Pokeball.

Bel became fascinated with the Ultra Ball and the Nest Ball resting just beside it. There must be a very vulnerable Pokémon inside of that Nest Ball, but a pretty formidable one must rest in that Ultra Ball.

However, she gasped once she spotted a charming Friend Ball resting slightly away from the others. The colors of green and white matched her hat and dress skirt perfectly that she was tempted to snatch that Pokeball for herself.

All that remained was a Lake Ball and a Quick Ball. Touko rather liked the idea of a water-type inside of the Lake Ball, but the Quick Ball must have been intended for a rather quick capture, so none had an idea of what rested inside.

Touko smiled at this collection of her grandfather's, but Bel quickly snatched the Friend Ball. "Look at this! It matches my outfit so well! Can we see what's in them now? Please?"

"Okay, okay! Just hold on." She retrieved a typed manual booklet that was actually a few pages long before taking a random Pokeball, but her companions refused to wait. Cheren claimed the Heavy Ball with an extreme interest in the Pokémon within, while Touya took the Nest Ball and cradled it delicately in the palm of his hand. "He included this manual, too. I don't know why. It can't be that hard to raise a few Pokemon." She flipped past the cover page and quickly read through the pages while her friends admired the collection and shook with excitement. "Um, it says here that these Pokemon have names. All of them, in fact."

"What's this one's name?" Bel offered the Friend Ball and Touko scanned through the pages.

"That one would be…Hey, that one's Ike! You remember Ike, right, Touya?"

"What, that little Quilava? You see, he _did_ survive that battle! I told you, Touko!"

"I know, I know. Oh, look! It even has his likes and dislikes. It says that Ike likes explosions, intense heat, and training the most. And he also likes to be scratched behind the ears every so often. But he hates earthquakes, water, and baths."

"Well, it's a good thing we don't get earthquakes around here, anyway. What else does it say? What does he eat?" Touya could barely contain himself as he gently stroked the Nest Ball curiously staring back at him.

"Uh, he eats mainly meat and berries. We better convince Mom to start planting a garden. And look, it even comes with his move set. He knows Inferno, Eruption, Giga Impact, and Focus Blast. He must be a really strong Pokemon."

"Should we let him out?" Bel asked with a hopeful cheer in her tone.

"No, not yet. Let me finish going through all of them."

"Well, what about this one? I don't remember seeing a Nest Ball in Grandpa's house."

"That one," She flipped through a page or two and scanned the words. "His name is Rolf, and he's a Shinx. Wow, he hatched not too long ago, about a month before Grandpop died. He's still a baby."

"Oh, let him out! Let him out, Touya! Let him play!" Bel managed to restrain herself from bouncing off the walls and ceiling while squealing and catching the Friend Ball, which slipped out of her grip, before it hit the ground.

"Wait, not yet, Bel. We'll let everyone out after. Calm down. It says that Rolf likes people, games, and small Pokemon, but he hates injuries, battling, and darkness. Aw, poor guy. I guess Grandpop didn't want him to battle and get hurt. He still has a move set: Thunder Fang, Discharge, Return, and Flash. He seems a bit easier to train. We'll let him out first," She stopped Bel from reaching to Touya's hands. "But when we're finished."

"But how can we help nourish him? A baby's gotta eat!"

"He prefers meat and berries—the same as Ike. It also gives certain types of berries he only eats. We better give this to Mom when she gets back."

"And, this one?" Cheren held out the Heavy Ball with a stern interest in his eyes that commanded Touko to resume her readings.

"That one is a Steelix named Greil. He was Grandpa's second starter. He must've been the dearest to his heart. Touya, Greil was the Steelix Grandpop used against Ghetsis on the video. It says here he likes dark and deep tunnels, mountain areas, and intense pressure, but he hates water, intense heat, and mudslides. Wait, listen to what he eats. His diet is mainly rocks, boulders, steel girders…and the occasional automobile." Bel sharply gasped as the others became confused.

"A Pokemon that eats cars? That's so weird!"

"I think my grandpop was just joking with that one. He used to come up with some ridiculous, random stories every once in a while. But there's still more. Let me read through it." She continued to read through the rest of the manual, introducing the rest of the inhabitants of the Pokeballs and their proper names then mentioning various pleasures and diets of each. Soon after, each grabbed their own Pokeball and impatiently waited for the initial trigger to release the captives inside. Bel still held onto the Friend Ball and persisted in staring towards the core; Cheren decided to keep the Heavy Ball with extreme excitement and awe for the powerful Pokemon sleeping within; to stop Bel's constant squealing, Touya chose to open the Nest Ball but longed for the Fast or Heavy Balls; after finishing the manual, Touko finally gave in to her excitement and gladly picked the Cherish Ball.


	6. Gate Keepers Part One

A truck parked itself right across the street from the large family house, but behind the truck, the mother ported her car within the driveway and entered the foyer right after the four adolescences chose their Pokeballs. She unloaded herself before entering the dining room and quickly peering into the chest then chose to hold the Heal Ball after noticing the excitement in the room. "So your package came, Touko? Did you open anything?"

"No, we were just about to. I had to read the manual first."

"There was a manual?" Touko nodded and handed her mother the small pack of papers before turning to her Cherish Ball. The adult quickly skimmed through the information with an amused yet exhausted smile upon her face. "Your grandfather sure knows his stuff. He makes me laugh at how official he is. You know, I've never really met his Pokemon. Open it up, Touko. Let me see."

"All right. This one is named Titania." Touko gently pressed the core's button, growing the Cherish Ball to the size of a baseball, but her heart seemed to skip several beats with every second. Her palms became drenched with sweat rather quickly as her smile grew wider just by imagining the beloved Pokemon inside. She turned the Cherish Ball to face the dining room table and pressed in the core's button again. The Cherish Ball opened and released a small blob of white light that quickly formed into vague shapes upon the dining room table. The spectators stared at the white form as it curved and straightened then morphed to the form of a fox-like creature. The white evaporated, leaving behind the body of an alternate-colored Eevee, who smiled and politely chirped once she spotted her new master: Touko. Bel's eyes sparkled and Touko's mother held her breath once the small Eevee stretched for the first time outside of her Pokeball. She licked her paw and began cleaning her face before facing her Trainer again as Touko outstretched her arm. Titania froze and glared at the human, making Touko a little nervous. "Hi there, little Eevee. Aren't you a cute one? My name's Touko. Glad to meet you." Titania stiffened as Touko gently petted her head, but once Bel giggled, she almost jumped.

"She's just so adorable! Can I hold her?" Touko quickly turned to her after seeing the small Pokemon jump and recoil her ears.

"Bel! You're scaring her! Try not to yell when these Pokemon come out." She turned back to Titania with a small smile as the Pokemon began cleaning herself again. "Your name is Titania, right? Well, I'm going to be your new Trainer." Titania abruptly ceased the feminine procedure after hearing those words and looked up to Touko's face, chirping again. Everyone fell silent when the Eevee lifted her paw as if to shake hands with her new master and Touko gently took her paw in her sweaty palm. "Can you…understand me?" She stared at Titania with wonder yet bewilderment in her eyes, especially when the Pokemon responded by nodding. Cheren quickly readjusted his glasses and intently observed the Eevee quickly making friends with the female humans. Touya, with a sly grin, discretely pinched the fluffy tail of the Eevee then quickly retreated his hand, but Titania swiftly spun around and forcefully tackled his chest, knocking him out of the chair. Once he landed on the floor, Titania sat at the bottom of his throat and patted her paw against his cheek, making Cheren and Touko snicker and Bel bubbly giggle.

"Now that's a powerful Eevee!" Cheren moved out of his seat to get a better look of the defeated Touya and triumphant Eevee.

"She's got some attitude! Serves you right, Touya!" Bel continued to giggle as Touko gently picked up her Eevee and helped Touya stand from the floor. Titania glared towards Touya, causing him to flinch, and Touko placed the tough Pokemon upon the table. "You must've been a great battler. Maybe you can show us sometime." Titania chirped again then turned her attention to the open chest and smiled. She casually approached the chest and peered inside, counting all of the Pokeballs in her head before counting the rest in the hands of the humans.

"She must want her friends to come out." The mother spoke up after sighing in delight; she instantly fell in love with the sight of that small Pokémon's fluffy tail. "Let them out, but one at a time. Let's see what's in that one, Touya."

"Okay. His name's Rolf." He pressed the core's button once to enlarge the Nest Ball then again to release the bright white blob upon the table. Titania perked up upon seeing this light form take shape into another four-legged creature. The white disappeared and left behind a young Shinx who chirped in excitement upon seeing Titania again until he caught sight of his new master. He recoiled as Touko stretched out a hand to pet him, but he relaxed a little after being petted gently upon his head. Titania quickly approached the frightened Shinx, licked her paw and made it damp then rubbed it against the roof of his head in an attempt to flatten a tuft of fur stubbornly standing up. Rolf flinched and tried to shake her off, but she persisted and scolded him to remain still, coaxing Bel's sigh to release.

"Oh, how cute." The mother adored the scene before her as it reminded her of the days when Touko and Touya were young babies. "She's acting like a mother to him. It looks like he has a punk-rock hairdo going on there."

"He doesn't seem like he likes it, though. Poor thing." Bel replied and struggled with herself to remain calm and not snatch the Shinx off of the table. Once Titania quit her fruitless job, Rolf slowly approached his new master and looked up to her face with wide, frightened eyes before chirping slightly and sniffing the air before him. She responded in amused delight with a small pleasant smile radiating to the hatchling. Rolf's eyes closed in focus; his small face contorted in concentration as if he was placed in some make-believe, serious battle situation. He caught her pleasant aroma—a real luxurious indulgence to his highly sensitive nose—and he deemed it was good.

He refocused his attention and chirped at her once more with a welcoming and friendly smile on her face that she almost swore had an uncanny resemblance to a young boy's after finally making one true friend in his life. But it was gone in a flash under Cheren's spectacles.

"If he can't even take care of himself, how will he survive in the real world—in battle, I mean?" Cheren spoke with a deliberate detachment in every syllable that frosted beyond his lips, with a reasonable statement, of course—at least Touko thought that in the back of her mind—but that did not cause the glares of his company to yield. But worst of all was that the Pokemon heard it quite clearly. The humans knew subconsciously that he was in the right—he was always right when it came to Pokemon. The Junior Trainer who had just received his first Pokemon spewed nothing but facts of the ideal Pokemon Trainer and his team of indestructible battle-warriors—Touko knew this, so she wasn't nearly as surprised as, say, Bel. Yet, despite all of Touko's knowledge and history with Cheren, even she could not put herself past the fact that Cheren refused to justify Rolf's potential weakness with his extreme youth. And his ideals were not likely to change anytime soon.

"That's a terrible thing to say, Cheren!" Bel almost immediately retorted; she looked back at the hatchling with sympathy between intervals of her glares. She, unlike the others, took his statement personally, but this time, it had meaning—they all knew this very well. Rolf was more than just a pretty sight to gawk at; he was the budding youth of a generation of Pokemon, one that would train, evolve, and grow stronger. But the glint in Cheren's cold eyes was nothing like the mysterious glow of evolution. However, Rolf heard this statement just as clearly as Bel and the others. With eyes a bit hurt with pride, he glanced to Titania, the only one present whom he trusted so faithfully, and her eyes held everything he needed: encouragement. Immediately, his ears perked up, his nose twitched, and his eyes lifted out of their misty haze. He nodded slightly, as a human would do, and slowly, bravely oriented his small body towards Cheren with a look of fierce determination in his eyes. But he was barely noticed at all by anyone. "Can't you see that he's still a hatchling? He's maybe a little older than a month. He has to learn still!"

"But what good is he going to be to Touko? She's going on a Gym Challenge, not a Musical Gauntlet. Her Pokemon need to be strong, fast, experienced; Rolf is too young to do much of anything. Alder hardly had time to train him—if he trained him at all. I don't see how he's going to be much help to Touko. I mean, even my Tepig could defeat him."

"Why don't you prove that then?" Touya, upon seeing the flushed face of Bel, chimed in at his opportune moment, but this was nothing that surprised Touko. Touya was known for observations of timing and the emotions of others then striking when the opponent comes away off their guard. It was the one thing Touko thought that might give him a great advantage over her, since she preferred a direct and quick end to most battles. Secretly, she hoped that these Pokemon would display such skill that it would turn Touya away in intimidation—it was the only way to secure her future in fame. However, she also knew that Touya was about as stubborn and hard-headed as a Bouffalant. Throwing him off the right track to the championship would have to take more than just a few intimidation tactics, she thought. It would have to take the conniving and well-executed skills of an all-out war. This was sibling rivalry at its peak.

At Touya's suggestion, Cheren pushed the bridge of his glasses further upon the slope of his nose. For a moment, those lenses flashed with white, concealing a thoughtful look as he nodded and grinned only slightly. "That sounds like a perfect idea. I should be able to refresh my own mind after a quick battle. Therefore, I'll be more prepared for the journey ahead." It was at this moment when his attention was finally caught by the ambitious, yet slightly nervous Shinx creeping up to him with eyes burning with defiance and a body covered with a faint glow. This soft light attracted the eyes of the other humans—especially Bel's, which gleamed with wonder and curiosity. Touko, however, began to second guess her own thoughts. She had once silently agreed with Cheren on Rolf's weakness after acknowledging his extreme youth, but now she reprimanded herself upon seeing the faintly glowing Pokemon bravely standing before his foe. Rolf wasn't weak, he was young, she concluded as the glow became brighter. Seconds later, the young Shinx's body glowed brilliantly with a golden aura of electricity, until his shine rivaled even the small chandelier faithfully hanging from the ceiling.

And a minute later, it ended. Rolf recoiled a bit as the electrical aura retreated into his body, but he had achieved his goal; Cheren dutifully took interest in the young rascal of a Pokemon. He shifted his glasses once more, analyzed the behavior of the Shinx, and observed the rapid twitching of his fur, but ultimately Cheren was slightly disappointed that nothing else occurred. He had wondered if this phenomenon was Rolf trying to utilize some move, such as Thunderbolt or Discharge, but it seems only to be a weak display of electricity, one that hurt even the user as he slunk away with his ears turned back and determination ridden from his eyes. "It seems like he understood you." Touko muttered her thoughts as she reached out and stroked the fur of the Shinx, greatly helping him to relax. At this statement, Cheren had no reply; the notion of a Pokemon's capacity to understand human speech had struck even him as his cold, black eyes never left the fur of the Shinx.

"It's amazing what Pokemon can do!" The mother gasped with a shortness of breath in an exhilarated excitement. Her hand was placed lightly on her chest and a special smile warmed up her face as she watched the Shinx playfully bat Touko's hand. "He must want to become stronger."

"And evolve, it looks like." Cheren muttered, but he was obviously mesmerized by the recent glow. "He might have a chance, but I would go easy on using him." Rolf chose not to hear this, of course, because Bel was now fawning over his form by ruffling his hair a bit playfully and a bit roughly.

"Well, I think he's a wonderful Pokemon, no matter if he evolves." Touko stated pointedly, and her eyes were filled with wonder at the lithe feline form rolling onto his back just to swat away Bel's fingers.

But the need arose in her for another Pokeball release.

She quickly looked around the room: Cheren and Touya were hosting some sort of staring contest towards the Ultra Ball—she automatically concluded that they both wanted to open it, and that the situation to come wouldn't be so pleasant to witness—Bel was still away at engaging Rolf in a round of "boxing," but her mother was the only one without a Pokeball. She saw how her mother gently smiled at the Shinx, now squeaking instead of roaring in frustration against Bel, but her eyes discreetly darted into the chest, eying nothing in particular as Touko followed her gaze; her mother did clearly indicate some sort of interest in this event. In that case, Touko randomly picked the first ball she spotted that was unique in pattern—the Lake Ball—then she offered it to her mother to catch her attention.


	7. Gate Keepers Part Two

"Here, Mom. Open this one." The Lake Ball rested exactly in place in the center of her palm with the small button, eerily, facing the mother. She looked over the design with her brow concentrated in confusion, but nevertheless, she gingerly received the Lake Ball, yet, she still exhibited more confusion. She held the smaller version of the device between her index finger and thumb, noting with awe of its tiny shape and size compared to those of her children's, but what caught her imagination the most was the fact that some Pokemon—big or small—was resting peacefully and safely inside of these portable machines no bigger than a ping-pong ball! How could this happen, she thought, but the golden glint of the paint underneath quickly snagged her attention and drew it towards the unusual design. It was so incredible and so artfully skilled that she had hardly noticed Rolf's silence replaced by Touko's voice. "Mom, you do know how to open it, don't you?"

"I'm sorry, dear?" Rolf had just joined with Titania as both eagerly but happily awaited the arrival of their next comrade, but more importantly, friend. But they grew impatient. Rolf barked quickly at the woman, his tail casually wagging back and forth with his alluring golden eyes pointedly fixed on the small prison keeping his possibly most dear friend in check. Touko somewhat noticed this so she made a deliberate point to hastily present her instructions, but she also wasn't quite sure on who would burst first—Rolf or Bel.

"You press this button—that's the core—once to ready the ball." Her mother had nimble fingers after years of countless sewing projects, yet she had an unmistakable firm grip just in her two deft fingers. Touko noticed this, mostly because she was almost unable to adjust the tiny ball's position to orient herself during the brief tutorial, but there was no need for it. Her mother simply didn't want to accidentally drop the object and smash some important mechanical device. "Don't hold it that hard. You might want to relax your palm when you do this." Her mother tapped the button, and once she did, immediately the ball sprang to life in its full, larger form, covering most of her palm. "Then, if you want to let the Pokemon out, you press and hold that same button. The ball should open."

"Okay, dear. Thank you. It's been a while since I did this." She chuckled under her breath and released yet another blob of sheer white light. The blob, as it collided upon the table, molded and transformed into a figure that had to be a solid. When the light faded away, a small Oshawott stood before them with eyes closed and relaxed expression upon its face. _It's sleeping_, Cheren thought as his spectacles flashed in analysis once more, but Bel was much more than delighted.

"It's so cute!" She squealed, and that was enough to make the Oshawott stir and slowly come into consciousness. "What's its name?"

"Mist," Touya wasted no time in reading the manual that Touko had unknowingly placed upon the table. He, more or less, glanced at the page, never noticing great bold print the word 'NOTE.' Instead, he still eyed that Ultra Ball stalwartly sitting in the plush comfort of its makeshift house, but something was incredibly odd in the air, at least to Touya. As he stared at the inactivated ball, he could almost feel a pair of eyes leering back at him, for reasons unknown. But as he stared, Cheren soon joined the competition with senses so acute, he could be considered a scholarly fox.

The Oshawott awoke as the females patiently waited, but as she did, bit by bit it became clear to her that she was indeed in a different environment. It smelled differently, sounded differently, but worst of all, her beloved Trainer could not be found! As her eyes opened and sense reignited, she slowly took in everything in one panoramic view. Bel was giggling, Touko's mother was smiling very gently, Touya and Cheren were still preoccupied with a haze in the atmosphere, but Touko refrained from doing any of this. Once she saw that saddened look in Mist's eyes, she knew something was wrong.

When Mist concluded that Alder was neither in sight nor hearing range, she grew terrified of the creatures around her. Tears dwelled in her eyes, painfully taking their sweet time to gather into a larger amount suitable to fall. Her attention and vision whipped here and there, but there was no Alder. She called for him, but there was no response, not in his voice anyway. She sniffed the air and there was none of his scent. But when she finally spotted Titania and Rolf, she was more than overjoyed. The humans—including Cheren—witnessed what would be the most human thing a Pokemon had ever exhibited: comfort. Titania, with deep motherly guidance, chirped towards Mist, talking some ease into the youth's troubled soul and effectively calmed her down. Rolf, as he sensed that Mist was still a bit upset out of fear, strolled right over to her and smoothly rubbed his furry side against her, purring loudly as he did so. It worked wonders.

However, at this time, Touya's skillful sleight of hand plucked the Ultra Ball right from its den mere seconds before Cheren attempted to grab it. Cheren frowned and glared at Touya's mischievous and self-confident smirk as the Ultra Ball was practically dangled and wagged in front of his face. But when Touya then flashed a cheesy smile, Cheren merely rolled his eyes and used a hand to support his face in sheer annoyance and disappointment. Indeed, he did have his heart set out for that Ultra Ball simply to know how it feels to release a powerful Pokemon, but as he recalled this, his grip on the Heavy Ball intensified.

However, a sharp glint of light caught his critical coal eyes. He sharply followed it and spotted the faint yet constant glow of a light blue aura around the Oshawott. As the Pokemon turned around to bravely view her surroundings, his eyes had finally found the light that they fancied quite strongly. In Mist's paws was a small blue orb, no bigger than an activated Pokeball, but it shined with a luminous and welcoming white light. This light shined purer than even the releasing light of Pokeballs, and it was surely a true sight for sore eyes. Cheren's willpower was shattered at the luminosity of this shining orb uncannily resembling the great blue Earth. His eyes went wide with curiosity, his glasses flashed as he readjusted them, and, for just a fraction of a second, he could somewhat clearly make out the image of another Pokemon—or so he thought—within the light itself! _There has to be a reason_, he contemplated deeply, _why Alder would have such a thing. What is it? A water stone?_

Yet, curiosity crept through him too much. With a slow, precise motion, he reached out for the coveted jewel without thinking too much on the subject. However, just before he executed such a risky motion, Touya activated the Ultra Ball in preparation for the new arrival. Unknown to Cheren, Mist had acquainted herself with the humans after Rolf's igniting encouragement, and the others were blissfully preparing for the new arrival. However, Touko, out of the corner of her eye, caught Cheren in his act of deadly curiosity.

But even she, with her advantage, could not stop Cheren fast enough. Suddenly and without warning, the Ultra Ball laid in Touya's hand violently shook, the core glowing red with surging energy. Immediately, Touya gasped in alarm, drawing everyone's attention except for Cheren's, which Mist noticed with blank curiosity.

The next few seconds were a blur.

Shards of spectacle glass shattered into thousands of little shards that scraped his skin, not bloody, but enough for him to feel a multitude of Beedrill-like stings and to draw a few drop of blood. Some shards embedded themselves in the skin of his nose and forehead, but these were minor and easily could be plucked out. But what he didn't see was the very culprit of this attack. The air stood still as the situation came into focus bit by bit: right between Cheren's outstretched arm and Mist's body still with her orb stood a moderately sized and steaming Mienshao.

This haughty Mienshao puffed out his chest and glowered quite triumphantly at Cheren's gaping form and deliberately used his body to completely block Mist's sight from Cheren's large coal eyes. The Pokemon growled lowly and swiftly, eyes shooting threats at the boy, and arms crossed to alert him to some finality. During the Mienshao's burst of pride and triumph, Mist remained strictly flabbergasted. Her eyes were probably the same size of Cheren's, but after a few moments of shocked silence, they narrowed straight at the back of the Mienshao's head. She yelped and whined consistently to assault his ear to, perhaps, teach him a lesson; however, his countenance and overprotective attitude was unwavering.

So, she launched a precisely-aimed Water Gun straight at his head.

The impact was enough to grab his attention. He shivered at the cold chill associated with the blast then turned to face her with beat red cheeks and a glare filled with annoyance. Cheren was forgotten in that moment. He silently watched the two Pokemon argue with each other, neither winning nor loosing until Titania intervened. However, Cheren gradually regained movement of his body, mostly his arms, but when the present situation dawned on him, he quickly wiped the small drops of blood on his nose and forehead as best he could. The slightly bloody glass shards were a joy to take out, so he had to be assisted by Bianca all while muttered some incoherent data he surveyed from the Mienshao.

The Mother visibly flinched and fidgeted where she stood; she was not quite sure what to make of the situation. Her father's Pokemon had never once struck a human, as he claims, and were benevolent, if not, then non-malicious to humans. But here this Mienshao stood, arguing with another Pokemon over striking a human.

Touko and Touya, twin novice Trainers, repeatedly glanced at Cheren while asking of his current state of health. His injuries didn't look very serious—just a few specks and drops of blood with small glass shards dipped in crimson. In fact, Cheren even muttered that the pain was only a mere sting and not excruciating. He would heal after a day. However, Touko was still upset inside. This was now her Pokemon—her Mienshao—that attacked one of her best friends! There was no telling what this Pokemon or what others could do to anyone else. She needed to be a Trainer and she needed to do it now. So, she gathered up her courage and, in the best stern voice that she could copy from her mother, addressed the Mienshao.

"Look at what you did! Don't attack a human. Didn't my grandfather teach you anything, you…horrible Pokemon!" The Mienshao turned his attention to her, eyes wide with incredulity. He looked around quickly, as if to place the blame on another, but when he caught the intimidating glare from Titania, he froze and turned back to Touko. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"It doesn't matter," Cheren spluttered as he snatched the towel offered to him by her Mother. "You won't understand it, anyway."

"Your grandfather didn't…hurt one of these Pokemon, did he?" Bel spoke slowly and carefully, but the look in her eyes was just about as incredulous as the Mienshao's.

"Of course not! He wouldn't dare!" Touko spoke firmly and flatly then turned to Touya. "Did Grandpop say anything about this Pokemon?"

"How should I know? He didn't tell me anything." Touya, as stubborn and oblivious as ever, looked away from her after a few seconds and watched the Mienshao bully upon the Shinx. Rolf didn't like that too much, so he continually bat away the Mienshao's hand, until the bigger Pokemon plucked Rolf up by his tail and laughed as he dangled in mid-air.

Touko looked upon her brother with some sense of disappointment. "Then read the manual. Does it say anything?" Touya felt his face grow hot from that subtle comment. There was no excuse of why he didn't think of that before—he knew that—but he wished he could defend himself somehow. He quickly flipped through the pages until he found the correct one labeled 'Ultra Ball' in bold black ink.

"It doesn't say anything unusual about him, except that he may fight with his brothers—especially Rolf the Shinx." His sentence trailed off slowly, as if his brain slowed with processing the idea behind those words. He looked up and caught the bewildered stare of Cheren who simply shook his head after a few moments.

"They would have to be half-brothers then."

"They're not hurting each other, right?" Bel held her breath as the two Pokemon scuffled, but the Mienshao seemed to be hurting the Shinx by pulling his tail and lifting him by the paw.

"I don't think so, Bel. They seem to be just playing." The Mother commented quite casually and smiled very faintly while seeing how adorable the Shinx was in trying to bat away his older brother. Touko discreetly leaned over Touya's should as she read the rest of the passage; however, there was nothing terribly important to be found other than the Pokemon's name and moveset. She snatched the manual right from under him as if she was snatching a carpet from under his feet.

"His name's Boyd." As that name escaped her lips, the Mienshao's ears twitched a bit before he turned his attention to her. She noticed him drop the Shinx onto the table, but the expression in his eyes was not the same as it was towards Cheren. He eyed his new Trainer cautiously, taking in every detail of the human, but he ended up scoffing and turning away with arms crossed once more. Touko noticed his analytic stare, so she froze right in place in confusion and slight anxiety. However, when he turned away from her with an indignant scoff, she quickly grew flustered. "Hey! Who do you think you are, Boyd? I'm your Trainer; you have to listen to me!" He sneered at her distress and cared to give even a glint of a glance in her way through his thinly slit eyes. She grew even more flustered to the point where she was speechless at his incredible lack of respect. But this was to be expected.


	8. Emotional Intelligence

"Let it go, Touko," Her Mother chimed in with the same gentle voice she always loved. "He'll come around someday. They all can't like you, right? It'll take time to gain his trust."

"She's right." Bel, with her light-hearted and cheery voice, had to speak whenever she detected a hint of sadness or frustration inside any of her friends. "Even your grandfather must've had _some_ trouble with them."

"Maybe you're right." Touko sighed with gracious defeat. "Maybe this is what Grandpop meant by _'testing' _me. But if it's just one, I can deal with it."

"I wouldn't bet on it being just one." Cheren had sufficiently cleaned the blood off of his face with Bel's assistance, but he was far from forgiveness to the Mienshao. "They all might not obey."

"What do you mean, Cheren?" Touko asked with some genuine concern and mild confusion. However, she wished she didn't ask that question because she knew how irritated Cheren's attitude was after that instantaneous incident. _Still_, she thought, _it wouldn't hurt to ask_. Cheren sighed with slight exasperation as he glanced to Touko's general direction—he could still see quite a bit without his glasses, yet everything still had a dull blur in his eyes.

"I mean that we don't know how much your Grandpop trained these Pokemon. Highly trained Pokemon will only respond to a highly skilled Trainer. You can measure a Trainer's skill by how many badges they have earned. You, Touko, haven't earned a single one."

"Yet, of course." Bel quickly added right after Cheren ended as if to subtly convey the message of hope for her friend. Cheren merely gave her a glance that was a hybrid of sly and annoyed.

"Yet. Of course." He turned back to the hesitant Touko; she didn't know quite what to say. Her eyes looked away from him for a moment to the group of Pokemon, but it still began. Her mind raced months, possibly _years_ into the future, centering on her eternal cycle of badge-collecting and the terrible, mind-blowing frustration with every defeat after defeat after defeat—

Touya, sensing this great chaos, recovered from his initial shock moments before to place a reassuring hand on his sister's shoulder. When she looked over to him, she instantly noticed that determined fire in his eyes. "And if she has any trouble," he spoke with a confident grin and soft eyes. "Her stronger brother will be there to help her out." Her face adopted a flush of anger, but she bit her tongue to stay quiet. At least, she wasn't rolling in turmoil of defeat, still. Touya, apparently, was oblivious to her rosy skin—he patted her a few times on the back in honor of their siblinghood then took his seat, but he remained wary of the Mienshao as the Pokemon glared at him for being closer to the Oshawott.

"But what still intrigues me," Cheren spoke once more with a true glint of curiosity in his cold coal eyes. "Is the fact that the Mienshao escaped from his Pokeball." He caught the attention and bewildered curiosity of the others, but instead of looking at him, they focused on the Mienshao "playing" once more with the Shinx, but Mist was involved this time with reddened-rosy cheeks.

"I never heard of that before." Touko's voice was more of a faint whisper, a hollow resonation of her full sound. "Grandpop never told me about that."

"Well, I suppose it is possible." Cheren leaned back on his chair with a look of content—he refused to ponder on problems he had no method to solve. Instead, he added the question to his mental checklist of mysteries to solve once his Trainer life finally commenced. "If something lives in that sort of complex technology, it must have found some way out."

"But that might be problematic!" Touko spoke a bit louder this time, and her voice was apprehensive. "What if they all can do that? If they won't obey me, how can I make them stop?" The room was quiet with a silent agreement, but Touko still looked around for some sort of encouragement that total chaos would not consume her.

"That may not happen." And up spoke Touya, who read her like an open book. Touko let out a silent breath of relief—no matter how much she would deny it, she always proved herself thankful for Touya's existence. Without him, she would simply fall apart. They were two halves of a whole, two parts of a story, two sides of a coin. They were twins—brother and sister—and yet, they often behaved like one being. "Boyd did that because…I think he was, somehow, jealous."

"That's too cute!" Bel chimed in, as if on cue, but the Mienshao merely scowled at her. Mist, however, blushed into a pink rose after glancing at Boyd with Bel's words chiming in her head.

Truth be told, Touko never expected a Pokemon to share a human's feelings, especially if those feelings were the romantic type. She assumed that Pokemon thought and behaved exactly like animals—which, essentially they were—but there was no denying some sort of evidence of jealousy in Boyd's countenance. Touko could have sworn that the eyes of the Mienshao gleamed like those of a young, hot-blooded young man. There was no mistaking that fire.

"But was it really necessary to attack Cheren?" Touko still had her voice laced with concern for, arguably, her closest friend.

In childhood, Touko had aspired to one day become the Pokemon Champion, or at least a powerful, commanding Trainer who was compassionate and accepting of all Pokemon in existence. Thus, she enrolled into the Trainer's School along with her twin, who also shared her ideal dream; however, Touya craved the fame and fortune over compassion. Within those years dutifully engulfing every plate of knowledge presented to them, Cheren and Bel made their acquaintance. Cheren only wanted to pursue absolute strength, and so he strived passionately to be the top of his class and defeat the Champion one day. Bel, however, became enthralled with the overwhelming number of the types and kinds of Pokemon. She did have some aspirations to become a powerful Trainer, but that desire seemed to take a backseat. Now she was almost completely interested in traveling the world to see all the Pokemon species she could in one lifetime. Henceforth, the four became the best of friends and made a solemn pact to always test each other and help each other become stronger. Pokemon was the very glue that held the four together so tightly.

However, the relationship between Touko and Cheren was somewhat different, even in the beginning. Cheren was like a sponge—he absorbed every detail and scraps of information presented to him from the teacher and the textbook. This vast knowledge came in use for others when Touko started struggling in the higher level courses. She had once—and only once—failed a test of Abilities, the very same test that Cheren passed with a perfect score. Coyly, and a bit enviously, she had asked for his tutoring sessions more than once, and he had agreed; however, neither of them were aware of their perception of the other at any point before this. At the very first tutoring session, Cheren arrived early, as always, but he felt slightly off—he was ridden with anxiety. He had no objection to tutor Touko for an hour, to instruct her on the correct path, to read over her shoulder to make sure everything went smoothly in her writing, to gaze into her eyes as he spoke seemingly nonsense on the wonders of Pokemon, to discreetly catch and wonder of her playful and whimsical aroma, to listen to the music that she spoke, to have her hand quickly brush by his as they exchanged papers, to see that lovely and earnest smile warming the flesh of his cheeks, to 'wantonly smother those immaculate and soft lips with his own—he knew what was wrong. He was smitten with her. It only became worse after that day.

On the other hand, Touko noticed that she held some interest in him, as well. However, the tutoring sessions for her were filled with frustration and bitter tears at the sheer difficulty of memorizing and organizing names with abilities. Back then, she was oblivious to the stranger within Cheren. Yet, she was not completely detached from him. His intellect and patience—one that she only knew—for her understanding had served to gnaw at the personal barriers she steadily erected over the years. Scarily by the unnoticeable rate of her attraction, she began becoming closer to him than both Bel and Touya. They often studied together, ate lunch together, walked to and from school together while mindlessly chatting off each other's ear of Pokemon, abilities, natures, Pokeballs—until she came with the notion that she was falling for him. Still, this was not yet realized by her mind. She assumed that she wanted nothing more than to be extremely close friends with him, to share a bond almost as strong as hers with Touya. She was content with that, content with the freedom of heartbreak if he did not have mutual feelings. During the tutoring sessions, he always took care in reasonably distancing himself from her skin. If she would have accidently brushed his hand while writing or exchanging notes, he would flinch and instantly retract his arm with a silence that she could hear all too well. If she were to smile, she noticed he would hurriedly tear his eyes away to the floor and say very little in reply. She had assumed that he was disinterested in her; therefore, she would refuse to acknowledge any type of deeper feeling than friendship.

Yet, her feelings were there.

A trip to the library was all that it took for the enlightenment to encompass both youths. Touko was sent to retrieve the Encyclopedia of Pokemon Abilities for their study session, but this textbook was perched upon a higher shelf, too high for her reach. She utilized a ladder that was apparently washed, but she paid no heed, even as her feet climbed the slathered rungs. She succeeded in her mission, but just as she turned, she slipped upon the slipperiest film of water of the topmost step and unceremoniously fell from a full ten feet.

Time went still for a moment.

Before she realized it, she was laying right on top of Cheren, the very boy who attempted to catch her and succeed, but Cheren was never the very athletic type. The youths silently stared into each other's surprised and shock eyes, both paralyzed to do or say anything else. It was then that Touko finally noticed the classical scent of her closest friend, and it was here when she blushed in his presence for the first time, and it was a horrible blush, indeed. Her face was the color of a tomato—so red that Cheren had thought she was holding back a scream. Perhaps she twisted her ankle or broke a bone during the fall? But he was just as red too, and his mouth was slightly ajar as he took in every seemingly minute detail of her face—her adorable blush, quivering lips, glossy eyes (perhaps she was on the verge of tears?), the way she fit perfectly against his body—but he stopped his thoughts all at once and expressed his concern for her well-being. Touko said nothing; she nodded slowly, silently, and, all too quickly, lifted herself from his body.

They stood for a while, silently enduring each other's presence, and then Touko started giggling with, at first, a girlish tone of some amusement. Her giggle later turned to embarrassment as her eyes slowly filled with small tears. Cheren, noticing some anxiety within himself, chuckled along with her giggles. He adjusted his glasses as the soft laughing continued for a minute or so; however, when it died suddenly, both youths were exposed. His glasses flashed white under the bright shine of the library lights; her eyes were somewhat enchanted by this quick flash, lured in by the pure light. She found herself closing in on him; He found himself closing in on her. With her back pressed softly against the wall, she calmly watched him close the distance between him, but her fingers knew not what to do. They stayed at her sides obediently, nervously twirling with the fabric of her longer jean shorts; Cheren's did the same by sticking to the rim of his pockets. Neither knew exactly what else to do; it was all too foreign to their worlds.

Yet, it felt perfectly natural.

Eventually, Cheren closed the distance of world between them completely. Their lips brushed slowly, tantalizingly over each other. Electrical pulses from each other's hearts could be felt by the other. No oxygen filled the lungs of either newcomer. Their worlds, their times, their thoughts stood still.

But this was only for a moment.

Cheren pulled back immediately—so fast that he wasn't quite sure that his actions had fully crossed the border. Touko didn't seem to notice; instead, the skin of her face was burning to the point where she almost fainted right on top of him. She asked herself repeatedly if what had happened really had happened, if her mind hadn't played a trick on her, if Cheren was angry, sad, confused, if Cheren knew of her feelings since long ago, if Cheren loved her—but they went back to conformity with the sharp sound of another being entering the library lobby.

They never expressed their feelings so blatantly since then.


	9. Gate Keepers Part Three

And now was the present. Cheren's eyes were still as cold as ever when they looked at her, but she thought nothing of it. He was always thinking, always calculating, always concluding. There was no room in his life for love, anyways. As she looked at him, her eyes were simply friendly, simply concerned. No deeper feelings, whatsoever.

"Humans would do the same thing, dear." Her mother calmly and clearly spoke with an air of experience in relationships. Before she married her husband, two men fiercely competed for her hand in mutual love. However, it was a painful experience to live through. She was conflicted with agonizingly kind thoughts—one of the men was exceedingly generous, the other exceedingly gracious—but in the end, she followed the sounds of her heart. She married the gracious man.

"And Cheren doesn't seem too hurt." Bel quickly inspected the small yet slightly moist cuts embedded into Cheren's delicate skin. "Boyd didn't cause too much damage."

"You're right, I know that." Bel brightly smiled, which lifted Touko's spirits a bit, but even Bel had to frown when Touko looked with downcast upon Cheren's face. She saw the cuts very sluggishly leaking out spheres of crimson, the way Cheren squinted slightly to even see straight, the ever reddening white plush cloth of the towel—"Are you sure that you're okay, Cheren?" Immediately, she retracted her voice—a feeling deeper than worry slithered out for just a moment, but as she closed her lips, the serpent rolled back to the back of her throat. She hoped it was just in time; she hoped that his sharp ears hadn't detected the desperation in her voice; she hoped he wouldn't flinch on the inside from sudden embarrassment.

He didn't even blink.

He turned his squinty gaze towards her, totally oblivious to any deeper meaning than the words themselves. "I'm all right. He only shattered my glasses. I can easily get new ones." But Cheren, like always, grew very impatient. His attention immediately reverted back to the chest as the Pokémon settled from extraneous activities. "Let's get back to this. I want to know what other Pokémon Alder had."

"Well…I'll just pick again." Touko's mother was the quickest to respond, and she took the Heal ball that caught her attention with its graceful and lustrous soft pink gleam. However, she took a minute to appreciate the very luster of this Pokeball. It was among the brightest with the most inviting and friendly of appearances; she was certain that the Pokémon resting inside, whatever it may be, was benevolent in nature to the extent that she even wondered if it was used for battle. Nevertheless, she repeated the instructions of her daughter and summoned the blob of the brightest white light.

The Pokémon quickly crowded somewhat near this flowing and morphing blob of light perching swiftly upon the table. As the light condensed into a dominantly pink mammal, the previously released Pokémon rejoiced—especially Mist and Rolf. They scampered to the creature and chirped excitedly at it, but it was struck with alarm and waved its hands back to steady the chattering boxes gleefully spouting all sorts of benevolences to its highly sensitive ears. Touko, in the midst of this language confusion, reasoned that this Pokémon—this Audino—was undeniably the friendliest one yet.

But she knew the reaction of Bel. The girl would go hysterical over the sheer attractiveness of the poor nursing creature; she would grab him, hug him, twirl those highly sensitive ears between her fingers, and blabber on and on again of the futures in Pokémon Musicals—her lifetime aspiration. And at the pinnacle of this outburst, she would never notice that this Audino was in fact a male.

As the Pokémon calmed down, however, the Audino sensed a greater disturbance all around him. The house was not familiar, the scent was not the same musty scent, and the human voices were not Alder's. He was not in his home. His ears perked at the squeals of Bel, and his attention focused to her as she blushed and marveled at the waves of light grazing off his groomed fur and his large eyes staring up to her in curiosity and awe. But he was kind in his temperament and soft in his chirps; in fact, it seemed that the Pokémon was superstitious of loud noises—any chirp higher than barely audible would be enough to wake some sort of spirit. At least, that's what Touko observed.

Her mother sighed in pure content at the remarkable grace and love shooting from this Pokémon's eyes. Unlike the others, he was not afraid, not angry, and not insecure. In fact, he was quite welcoming to his human strangers, but as soon as he paid his dues to them, he turned his heavenly attention over to his Pokémon companions. However, Cheren and Touya seemed somewhat floored by the sudden appearance of this Pokémon, and Touko noticed this quickly. She automatically assumed that Cheren was expecting some extremely rare Pokémon like a Chansey that so many Trainers have cried in defeat at their loss to catch it. But Touya seemed more in shock than even Cheren. He was expecting not a stronger-looking Pokémon but one that gleamed with the brilliance of toughness—one that exuded an aura of pure danger, pure excitement. And as he stared at that Audino and caught his eye, he sighed in defeat and concluded that there was none of that in the Pokémon.

"I wonder where your grandfather picked up this sweetie." Her mother was hopelessly infatuated. She cupped her hands on her beating chest and sighed in pure happiness at the soft-spoken Audino. At her words, the Audino turned around with slight confusion as he gazed upon Touko, but unlike the others, he exhibited no trace of fear and smiled angelically at his newly recognized Trainer. But his smile caught her off guard. She was expecting something defiant, something insecure from this creature, as she had the same dealt to her with the last four. Instead, she was greeted with the most heavenly of images she had experienced yet, and even her heart was willing to comply this time. If Bel's intense hysteria was an infection, Touko was considered dead. Her heart sped at the slight twitches of the Audino's ears and the quiet and meek chirps she could have sworn meant _'Hello! How are you today?'_ Before she knew it, she was falling in girlish love with the oblivious creature.

"She's too adorable!" The Audino froze and turned straight to Bel with a look of confusion in his large, disarming eyes. His smile slowly bended into the reverse—a frown, and by the looks of it, he was slightly annoyed at her remark. Yet, his annoyance was so gentle that she barely even detected it in the first place. But Touko realized this almost immediately. She couldn't blame Bel, however. The girl was absolutely fascinated with anything furry, fluffy, and pink. Enter Rhys—all of the aforementioned. But she still was perfectly harmless. The worst she would do was potentially strangling the targeted Pokémon while stroking its silky, plushy fur of the crown of its head. Yet, Touko would still claim that this was an obsession.

"Bel," Touko spoke with some confusion of her own as she flipped through the pages of the manual she, as well as the others, temporarily pushed to the back of their minds. Touko had noticed this strangeness in the Audino to the extent where she almost felt the Pokémon's pain _herself_. But she brushed it off as a mere coincidence and double-checked the manual. "I think it's a boy Audino." Bel's lips closed over themselves as if they were buttoned. Out of embarrassment, she blushed quite viciously; she knew that the Audino had comprehended her words and took slight offence. Nothing could have struck her more than the sight of a downcast, adorable, fluffy, and nursing Pokémon. When the calm had finally swept over the females at last, much to the males' relief, like a powerful tidal wave, Touko scanned the document again in search of a name. "Grandpop even states it right here. _'Male Audino are rare, but this one is most truly a male in the most biological sense.'_ But I can understand you." Touko now smiled in grace for the truly saving angel Bel strived to become with every sunrise to every sunset. It worked with little effort. Bel snapped right back into a cheery mood, brushing aside her previous embarrassment like fields of dust and uncovering a small smile.

Despite her obvious blunder, the Audino remained kind in nature and countenance, especially as he greeted all of the humans in polite turn, but when he turned to Touko, he achieved a slight sense of solemnity. She read off the name as quickly as she could locate the script, and she addressed the heavenly form of a Pokémon staring into her eyes with wonder and awe. He chirped once more and slowly nodded his head in her direction, but she was struck with excitement and debilitating relief. She had prayed that this Pokémon would act more civil as opposed to the very previous one; she had prayed that this Pokémon would be much easier to understand than the others and much more willing to understand; however, what she had subconsciously asked to some great deity Pokémon was that this Pokémon would not harm anyone around her or anyone she held too close. Miraculously, her pleas were answered.

"You seem to be a polite Pokémon." As she addressed the Audino, she noticed his rigid stance, the focus of his ears that twitched with minimal frequency, and the consistent attention beaming from his light blue eyes. He was an angel in a creature's flesh. "You're name is Rhys? I'm Touko. Do you mind if I pet you?" He chirped again rather quickly, but she couldn't notice what stance his tone took. So, she proceeded to stroke the crown of his head with the gentleness of the back of her fingers. He slightly flinched at the initial rough contact—he was not a sturdy Pokémon. In fact, Rhys was quite fragile and accident-prone. It was nothing that he could be blamed for, other than bad genes, but Alder, in an act either of mercy or of advantage, purposefully excluded Rhys from the partaking of any battles, whatsoever. Thus, the feeble Audino became strictly a healing Pokémon to nurse the others bent out of shape from countless rigorous battles and training, but some of these injuries were often self-inflicted from sheer recklessness.

As Touko stroked the plush fur of his head, her hand automatically slowed the motions into a gentle brush, a gentle flow of her hand that resembled the feeling of cool water streaming across the skin of his head. He felt relaxed, for the most part, but Mist quickly seized his attention and chirped at him some nonsense that was completely alien to the humans. "It's lame how we can't understand a single thing about them if we can't understand their language." Touya, with his arms on the table and his head resting on him, hummed quite lowly as he mindlessly watched the expression of the Audino fade into something of dread. Before anyone else had the chance to speak, Rhys leapt into action. He turned his attention to Cheren and wordlessly observed the cut skin of his nose and forehead, but Cheren stared blankly back at him. Those coal eyes were still analyzing the Audino, making note of how well he seemed to communicate with the other Pokémon, but he always came trailing back to the conclusion that this Audino was no worth to advancing a Trainer's journey to glory.

But he would be proven wrong.

"Oh, look at that!" Touko's mother gave an airy laugh while watching the worry in the expression of the determined Pokémon. "He noticed Cheren's cuts. You know, I've often seen Pokémon Centers have Audino as nurse assistants. He must want to help Cheren. An old friend of mine said that an Audino's saliva has extraordinary healing properties. Go on, Cheren. Let Rhys help."

"I'm not even bleeding. I'll be fine." Cheren instantly looked at the Audino perched right in front of him with eyes ablaze with concern and sheer kindness. Automatically, his will and heart were captured and submitted before the Audino's alluring grace and glorious divinity as even the chandelier's light exuded a radiant form from his skin.

He could do nothing but comply and lean forward for Rhys to quickly commence his work. Immediately, Mist became interested and watched Rhys's every movement, stitching every word and demonstration into her abstract vault for late use. Within minutes, the Audino supplied a fair amount of saliva on every one of the ripped flesh carefully and systematically while provided some instructions for Mist to utilize later. But it was all so foreign to the humans. They marveled at how efficiently and dedicatedly this Audino worked, but the rate of Cheren's healing caught and maintained their eyes. Immediately, Touya raised his head with sharply aroused interest; Bel slightly gasped at the work of this magical fluid; Touko's mother silently watched the phenomenon she had only heard and dreamed about; Touko made a mental note to thank her grandfather in a prayer she would chant later; yet, Cheren witnessed no difference with the exception of the feeling of a gooey, cool liquid sticking to his skin.

Seconds after the saliva was applied, the folds of the slightly rippled flesh animated seemingly by sheer will. Fleshy fibers extended from both ends and intimately entangled themselves in a series of tightly woven bonds that drew and propelled the ripples forth and reconcile. One by one, the holes were filled in, and the flesh renewed itself perfectly, flawlessly. But Cheren felt no difference other than the absence of a sharp stinging and the sticky evaporation of the applied oral juices. Rhys smiled in kind love towards the humans and chirped to Mist some final tips of the healing process with pure happiness in his eyes. If serving meant happiness, this Audino was mirth itself.

Bel brought Cheren to the mirror of the foyer to show him the proof of such a success. He was baffled through and through. He found his fingers absentmindedly trailing over the stick areas of his nose and forehead, but, although he had the proof in front of him, he still had difficulty in accepting the truth.

Until he felt Bel's fingers also grazing over his forehead.

She chuckled quite politely and smiled kindly at his incredulity, but there was something in her voice that caused him to adopt a shade of faint pink in his cheeks. Her touch was soft and delicate because her intentions were never rough play nor malicious in nature; her voice carried through with the sounds of a choir of Chimecho in the very heart of winter when celebration engulfed the world like waves of fire; her invigorating spirit was enough to pull anyone out of the darkest depths of melancholy and place them front and center for the sun to account for them in the world. He couldn't help but see something in her that he fancied. "See? Everything's healed! That Audino is really something, huh?"

"I'll be damned." He may be lacking glasses, but he could certainly see the results on his forehead with more focus than he thought was possible. "So this is why Alder had that Pokémon." Bel instantly detected that same calculating and cold thought process Cheren held when it came to Pokémon, and, just as quickly, she frowned in their defense. Yet, even she debated on bringing the topic to mind.

Touko came to the foyer and looked over the railing to her two future rivals with a small smirk within her eyes, especially as she mentally timed how long Cheren stared at his forehead's clean reflection. However, her eyes quickly lost that smirk as she recalled the image of the heavy doubt written all over his face as Rhys proceeded with his administrations. She had assumed that Cheren wrote off the Audino as weak, like Rolf, and as a big mystery to Alder's motives for using the Pokémon at all. Once again, he had fallen into the assumption that Alder possessed solely strong Pokémon that had fought consistently and courageously to secure him the title of Unova Champion. And once again, he was wrong.


	10. Gate Keepers Part Four

Satisfied with Cheren's rude awakening to the truth, Touko turned on her heel and rejoined the others. Rhys had engaged Titania in a bit of a short conversation since she immediately confronted Boyd on his incident with an innocent and curious human. Boyd had nothing more to do than to nod with her statement, offering very little to defend himself; experience dealt him a harsh blow with Titania's swift tackles and tail smacks until he finally learned to obey the older and, apparently, stronger female Eevee.

Yet, something still caught Rhys's sky-mirroring eyes. He turned his attention towards the chest, and his eyes almost automatically locked-on to the Quick Ball exuding some sort of vibrant air. He knew too well who waited so impatiently inside that ball that he took it upon himself to seize the Quick Ball before any rash excitement from the humans could release the devil within.

However, he didn't know the extent of Bel's enthusiasm.

He picked up the deactivated Quick Ball just as Cheren and Bel rejoined the group; however, Bel noticed his actions immediately. She sighed in content at the great care and respect the Audino blessed upon the small orb, and she drifted to some conclusions of her own. One of them was that the Audino had a strong fondness for whatever Pokémon rested inside that Quick Ball. And that was enough to set her off. "Rhys must want to release that Pokémon. Maybe he's closer to it than the rest." His ears twitched and his eyes slowly looked up to her, but his eyes were now filled with heavy precaution and even fear for whatever misfortune may befall the humans once that shining, glorious white light appears once again, but she was oblivious to this. She plucked the Quick Ball right from his balls and activated it—his face went pale at this point. The others snapped into attention, even the Pokémon were eager for the next arrival of one of their old companies; and yet, Titania held the same worry as Rhys. But none of the humans noticed this.

The seconds ticked on longer than they should have. Rhys's heart rate accelerated slightly, but in his frail body, it was enough to almost make him black out. He turned his pale face over to Titania, who visibly grimaced, along with Boyd, in choking anticipation of a certain companion's arrival, but the children, Mist and Rolf, were just the opposite—they were excited beyond all compare. And then there was a click and a pop. The blob of light exploded from its spherical confines, churned and morphed in the space above the company's head then swiveled quickly onto the table's flat surface. The light abruptly shattered into fine particles that faded out in seconds, leaving behind a smiling and extremely lively Whimsicott.

Upon the sight of it, Rhys lowered his ears out of caution and approached the Whimsicott—he knew her far too well to be relaxed. The Whimsicott smiled with a bubbly aura as she gazed around to each of the humans, but once her sight aimed for Rhys, a fit of energy inside her exploded. She tackled into Rhys, giddy with severe excitement, and easily knocked its poor victim right onto his back, but she in no way slowed down. Encouraged by the cheers and chirps of Mist and Rolf, the Whimsicott dashed quickly off the table and floated nonchalantly into the air of the stairwell while scattering tiny particles of spores wherever she went. These spores greedily latched onto whatever their fibers could reach—the walls, the carpet, the table, and, worst of all, the clothing of the humans. As they gasped and observed the slightly growing spores around them, the Whimsicott was long gone at the peak of the stairwell.

Before long, the humans clearly heard an item of considerable weight crash into the carpeted floor above. Immediately, Touko leapt right into action. As the others rushed upstairs to find the cause of the disturbance, Touko quickly scanned the manual for the name and any warnings then joined them. Once they reached the door blocking the room of the incident from their sights, they halted their progression as they witnessed a blob of pure white cotton-like spores congregating at the side of the door, right next to the doorknob. But Touko didn't notice this—she was far too busy trying to retain the bold warning of the manual: _'Under any and all circumstances, do __not__ let Mia wander from your sight. She means well, but she may and will cause unintentional yet severe havoc upon the surroundings. And __don't__ get her loose in the house! Your mother would hate that.'_

"Touko, what was that Pokémon? I've never seen anything like it." Bel was amazed by the sheer cuteness of even that Whimsicott, but what caught her eye even more was the fact that it had such a bond with Rhys, or so she concluded. Bel, unlike the rest, didn't seem to mind the fluff clinging to every fabric of her hat. In fact, the spores felt as light as the clouds and as smooth as clean, ripple-free water, and they even pleased the nose with sense of dew-drenched grass. Touko hardly minded it either because she was mad with apprehension of the nature of this Whimsicott named Mia. If she was anything like Rhys, there was no cause for worry, but some doubt rose in Touko—her grandfather's warning was enough to make her wonder just what kind of threat Mia could really be.

"Just look at it this way, Bel," Touya spoke with irritation as he plucked the spores, glob by glob, from the fabric of his jacket and beloved hat. "If you were ever a Pokémon, you'd be whatever that was." Bel giggled girlishly at his struggle and frustration to rid all threads of cotton from his treasure, and she looked over at the stairwell just in time to see Rhys slowly climbing stair by stair to ensure that his pace wouldn't be too strenuous on his frail body. Titania joined him, but with her quick for feet, she reached the top first and raced over to the door and barked continuously, seemingly at the ever-growing glob of white now twitching as if it were a ball of pure energy. Suddenly, the blob popped out from the doorknob and into the form of the happy-go-lucky Whimsicott swirling and twirling above their heads; however, as the humans went to grab for her, she just as easily dodged them and quickly made her descent into the floor below with giddy giggles and a bright smile on her small face.

"That's a fast one, isn't it?" Touko's mother breathlessly said as she sped down into the dining room where Mia had passed on her delightful journey to the basement, inspired by the encouragement of Mist and Rolf.

"It's like a little ball of energy!" Bel giggled as she noticed the irritated look now on Cheren's face. "What kind of Pokémon was that, Touko?"

"The manual said it was a Whimsicott. Her name's Mia." Sounds of quick footsteps could be heard from below—Touko's mother raced around the basement, bumping into various items of furniture and spouting out all sorts of frustrations as she pursued the prankster.

"Did he say how we can catch her?" Touya, with his cleanly picked hat, opened the door to the room the Whimsicott inhabited, but he, along with the others, was quickly stricken into awe of the room's condition—spores, everywhere, and some knocked over books. It resembled mountains of snow after one furious blizzard after another and smelled like fresh flowers and a healthy forest. But none of them were amused in the slightest. "Or are we on our own?" Touko thought briefly of the room before her until she turned to Touya with eyes filled with hope.

"We need some sort of a net to, at least, capture her. The manual said that Whimsicott can escape even the narrowest of traps, but it's the most we have, right?"

"I have a butterfly net in the basement, but what then? I think we should put her back into her Pokeball. She caused enough trouble. I mean, look at our room!" Touya stormed off into the mountains of cotton and began ripping them apart, not that it even mattered much. The more he ripped, the more mountains he made and the more frustrated he became. Cheren and Bel both drifted into the room—Bel helping Touya remove the piles and piles of cotton while Cheren meticulously surveyed his surroundings. He observed the color of the cotton, the smell, the ability to stick as he rubbed it between his fingers and clothing, but he soon noticed something intriguing to his squinting eyes. As he rubbed the ball of white between his index finger and thumb, the fabric eventually deteriorated into dust and, later, became obsolete. He repeated his observation once more and arrived at the same result then muttered some incoherent notes to himself while the spores upon his clothes also deteriorated.

Touko quickly left the hallway for the basement but not without carrying Rhys and setting him on the floor since the Pokémon looked exhausted just from climbing the great incline of the stairs. She quickly fetched the butterfly net, as if it was on her non-existent radar, and located the source of commotion—Mia was nonchalantly floating above the mother's head, easily gliding just out of her reach and giggling as if everything was a game.

But Touko was as serious as her grandfather's death.

She gripped the shaft of the net with both hands and cautiously made her way over to the struggling mother. However, Mia immediately noticed her approached, so she skillfully swerved around the mother's arms and pounced off of her head and past Touko's reach. Mia quickly drifted towards the stairs leading to the foyer with such a speed that Touko would be unable to intercept her pathway, much to her frustration, but, suddenly, Mia halted in mid-air right before the first step.

At the very top of this staircase, there was Titania gazing, like a war-hero, upon the Whimsicott, but there was nothing but sternness in her eyes and voice as she barked some incomprehensible orders towards her subject. And Mia listened without a second of downcast. This was Touko's chance—her only true opening of capturing the little devil was staring her in the face, so she leapt at the first opportunity that arose. As Titania barked some more orders, Mia calmly remained in one position and listened, although half-heartedly, until that butterfly net quickly descended upon her and blocked her from her world. She didn't fight it, however; instead, with shock in her countenance, she looked around at the air in search of the culprit until she found Touko and that victorious smirk she wore. But Mia was delighted to have this human appear in front of her, and she squealed with such emotion, it even made the mother's frustrations curl into cotton balls and blow away like dust.

"I finally have you, you little devil." Touko carefully slipped her hand inside of the net to securely seize that pillow of cotton, but it was such a pleasure for her sense of touch to even graze upon the Whimsicott's body that she flinched in shock and gasped at the Pokémon's sheer softness. Mia, however, didn't seem to notice Touko softly stroking the large cotton ball, for she didn't seem to possess much care into it. In fact, she was brimming with eagerness to lay her eyes upon Rhys once more.

Despite being enthralled with the sheer texture of the silky cotton, Touko gently grabbed onto the plushy body of the Whimsicott with one hand then removed the net and held the Pokémon close to her chest, eliminating the chance to escape. But she felt as if she was holding a pillow crafted for a god in her arms. Mia took an interest in these peculiar human, especially in her smell—it was quite different from all the smells the wind brought before her on her worldly travels of causing pranks and light misfortunes befall all those whom she has met, until she met Alder and that fluffy hair of his that she couldn't resist to cling and burrow into.

"I'm glad that's over with." Touko's mother recovered from her exhaustion and frustration with the creature, but even she had to admit, it was a sheer thrill to chase that Whimsicott from point A to point B then back to point A. "Don't let her out of your sight, Touko. Or you'll be cleaning this cotton to the last speck." Touko visibly flinched at the mere thought of all that effort Touya exerted to rip the cotton fibers to shreds. Maybe putting Mia back into her Pokeball was the best way to avoid the problem. "Your grandfather sure had a handful just with this Pokémon. I hope this cotton will come out." Touko tried to ignore her mother for that relentless worry over housework tone once again had surfaced just to bug her into madness. But now she held Mia in her arms—plush, excited, delightful, and bubbly Mia who held her back with a content smile on her small face.

Touko returned with Mia in her arms and Titania, who led her up the stairs, just as Cheren explained his discovery to her mother—the same discovery that left Touya relieved from the burden of hard, meticulous work and Bel feeling fortunate that hard labor was avoided, probably because she couldn't wait to see the next Pokémon. "When I rubbed the material between my fingers, it turned into a sort of power." Cheren started his conclusion with a natural curiosity, especially when his observant eyes caught the vague, blurry sight of the Whimsicott as Touko entered the room. "And a few seconds later it disappeared completely. There's no way that I can explain how, but it sure is convenient. My best guess is to say that this Whimsicott—or Mia, whatever it's called—could freely control these spores. Or they're very short-lived."

"Well, isn't that wonderful?" Touko's mother sighed with a mixture of exhaustion and content, but her countenance was lagging due to the former. "I hated the thought of picking this house clean of these persistent particles."

"You don't say?" Touya had muttered underneath his breath, but his mother must have caught it because she sent such a glare towards him that he quickly zipped his mouth and pulled down the rim of his most beloved hat. Touko glanced down at the bubbly Whimsicott enthusiastically taking in every nook and cranny of the house with much wonder as she squealed in response to the chirps of Rolf and Mist. Eventually, Touko's stare had influenced Mia's field of view to drift upwards until their eyes connected and small smiles mirrored each other.

"I'm going to put you down now. Don't float off and cause mischief, or it's back into the Pokeball for you. And I'm Touko, by the way. I'm going to be your new Trainer." Mia squealed with welcome after a moment then nodded in agreement, much to Touko's shock—she was still introducing herself to the idea that Pokémon could understand humans perfectly. Once Mia was released, however, she immediately glided straight into Rhys and stuck to the Audino's fur like superglue, knocking the poor victim off of his balance.

"They seem to be very close." Bel remarked with some awe in her voice and eyes. "Do you see now, Cheren? It's not just about battling. Pokémon have feelings too—they're almost like people." Cheren merely retained his silence for a few moments as his eyes twinkled with contemplation. As he finally spoke, he placed his hands upon the table, folded quite scholarly with his usually solemn expression.

"We'll just see how useful Mia is. If she can move like that, she may be able to avoid every attack until the enemy wears itself out. That may be why Alder chose her in the first place." It finally reoccurred to him that he still possessed a deactivated Pokeball in his left palm. As he opened his fist, the shrunken Heavy Ball gently rolled onto the table and addressed him with a commanding aura. And the fire rose once more. "Let's continue on with this." He spoke and carefully plucked the Heavy Ball with his thumb and index finger; however, Touko found herself immediately consulting the manual. As Cheren activated the Heavy Ball, she swiftly lunged forth and swiped the device from his hand, ignoring his annoyed glare that she was sure he would shoot at her.

"Not yet, Cheren! My grandpop specifically stated to release the Heavy Ball _outside_. I think his Steelix is inside here." At the mention of the species' name, Touya instantly perked his head up from the table, but as a consequence, his hat concealed all of his face for a second then plopped onto the wood. He recalled that fierce battle they watched just last week and the sheer strength Greil the Steelix exuded upon the Hydriegon. However, Greil's defeat at the hands of a Bisharp shocked even the ambitious Trainer. "Let's save him for last. I'd like all of these Pokémon to stay in one place." Cheren maintained his silence and motioned with his hands for her to continue. She deactivated the Heavy Ball and set it neatly in the box then randomly plucked the Fast Ball from its nest. Yet, there was something quite off with this particular device. She could feel it building pressure and static electricity upon her fingertips, but she knew not the cause. _Maybe it's just Cheren glaring at me again_, she thought, _I better let him have it_. Suddenly, she plopped the Fast Ball into his open palm, making as little contact with his fingers as possible, but it was ultimately inevitable.


	11. Gatekeepers Part Five

Cheren stared blankly at the Fast Ball then to Touko's face, and she merely nodded in reply. Cheren then grew shocked at the sudden sensation of smooth fur nudging his open palm, encouraging it to subconsciously close. He looked to his hand and watched as Rolf purred and rubbed his face and head against Cheren's fist, the vibrations causing him to finally feel the mutual emotions of a tender human heart. But he just as quickly dispatched this idea, removed his hand, and activated the ball. "Did Alder name this one, too?" He never looked up; instead, his eyes were casted down upon the lightning bolt painted boldly on the ball, but he had no sense of the ball's aura from Touko's perspective—he easily assumed that the Pokémon inhabiting it was one of the stronger ones.

"He named all of them," Touya reported as he flipped through every page of the manual, searching for the image of a Fast Ball at the top right corner. "This one's named Shinon." He looked away from the manual and focused on the plain yet striking design of the Pokeball. Possibilities of its inhabitant had finally occurred to him just before Cheren released the ball—Touya automatically assumed that an electric-type Pokemon hid inside of the wondrous metal. _But exactly what kind of Pokemon_, he thought and mused for a bit before deciding to pick apart the issue with Cheren's critical analysis. "I'm wondering if he ever caught a Pikachu. I heard that they're rare over here." Without blinking, Cheren slightly nodded while he remained deep in contemplation and strong scholarly excitement.

"Fast Balls were designed to capture Pokemon with high agilities provided by their sleek and powerful muscle structure." Touya merely stared at his profile image as he spoke even further, but towards this sight, Bel giggled silently and Touko quickly rolled her eyes. "But I highly doubt that Alder would catch some common Pokemon, like a Pikachu. Considering that he usually favors the strongest of Pokemon, or the rarest—minus the Shinx from both—" Rolf scowled a little after he heard Cheren's quick address stated towards him. He aimed to move his paw forward to take a quick swat at Cheren, but Titania's tail quickly brushed right before him and halted him in his tracks. She looked firmly into his eyes until he backed away and abandoned all attempts of revenge, lest he follow Boyd's fate and end up on Titania's angered side. "My best bet is that he would have trained an Arcanine. Another fire-type wouldn't be a bad idea, since he nearly lost that Quilava. I doubt even if his Quilava survived after that battle."

"But he did." Touko threw her words precisely at Cheren, hitting her mark professionally. He looked startled for a moment as he processed those words, but just as quickly, he reverted back into his cold and calculating state—the very state that she found herself disliking more and more in him with every time she saw it. Like strong gusts of hurricane winds, images of that battered Quilava struggling to go on swarmed around her mind in a tight vortex, letting no other thoughts in or out, and she remained very quiet and very still in thought. She was hardly distinguishable from the dead.

"Sorry." He quickly mumbled with a dismissive tone as he conveniently recalled her reactions and Touya's explanations to Alder's last moment of his public life. He recalled hearing that her thoughts dropped alarmingly below her usual standard of happiness and how she had never been quite the same since. But he couldn't quite pinpoint the cause of these emotional torrents—was it Alder or that Quilava? Nevertheless, she was upset, and he had ripped open those flesh wounds bit by bit. He may have been mechanical on the outside, but encased inside that metallic shell was a tender, beating, bloody heart.

"An Arcanine, huh?" Touya, after once again graphically feeling the afflictions upon Touko, threw the topic back onto its original point, and he was telepathically thanked by his dear sister. "I was thinking more of an electric-type. They're usually fast, right?"

"Most are." Cheren replied quite dismissively with a glint of his eyes directed towards Rolf the Shinx—an offspring of one of the strongest yet slowest electric-type Pokemon. Even Touya noticed this change in Cheren's voice, but, being extraordinarily passive around his close ones, chose not to grace the statement with a reply. After a short interval of silence, Cheren finally presented himself with the green light in opening the Pokeball. With a pop and a snap, the blob of fluorescent white light swiveled and swirled, danced and twirled, morphed and shaped, in speed that sent their patience on the edges in a sort of mocking air that picked on their nerves, before striking the carpet space not too far away from Touko.

As the light shattered into self-destructing orbs, a Jolteon appeared before him, perched on its hind legs without a single intention to move or even to acknowledge the humans.

"It's called a Jolteon. And I was right—it's an electric-type!" After consulting the manual, Touya watched the Jolteon utilize the agility of one of his hind legs to eradicate a discomfort on the skin behind its ear.

But that was the trap. Bel smiled delightfully at this feline creature, and thinking he was about as harmless as the Whimsicott, Mia, she approached with every intention to gently caress the smooth yet slightly prickly fur of his head. However, he had other plans. As she approached, his attention drifted to her direction in the same manner of a drunkard, but the glare he zapped towards her was nothing less than god-awful. It was so powerful and so deadly a glare that even she could register that something malicious churned around inside the head of that Jolteon, and she stopped in the middle of her thoughts and actions. She could even hear a faint growl shaking from his throat. Touko, sensing this immediate danger Bel was putting herself in, quickly approached her friend's side while quietly observing that hostile Jolteon. She could only imagine what her mother must have been thinking.

"What's wrong with him? Are you sure your grandfather didn't—"

"I'm more than sure, Bel." Touko's tone was now irritated—her respect for her grandfather went unmatched, except for Touya's, which may have even succeeded hers by a fraction of a margin. But it still felt god-awful for any doubt to arise on her role-model's character. "Not all of my grandpop's Pokemon are going to be too friendly. You've seen what Boyd did. This one might be no different."

"But Boyd had a reason…" Touko didn't catch these words; she didn't catch the warnings from the manual; she didn't catch the pleas from her mother to be careful. All she did catch was the seemingly calm and slightly curious posture of the Jolteon before her—his head cocked to the side slightly, his coal eyes narrowed with criticism, his throat no longer vibrated with sizzling growls. He almost looked friendly enough.

But that was the bait, and she took it without much thought.

"You're name's Shinon, right?" She spoke confidently as she had done before with the others, and she thought it was working because he didn't seem flighty. "Your previous Trainer, he—well—I'm going to be your new Trainer." Shinon didn't flinch nor intentionally command a muscle as Touko slowly approached. "My name's Touko. I'm going to take as much care as you as did my grandfather—your previous Trainer." She was in range now, ever since she carefully stretched out a slightly confident hand and made smooth and gentle contact with his head. He didn't flinch; he didn't growl; he didn't bite. Instead, the cells of his fur and of the first layer of skin upon his head collaborated into simultaneously releasing several small bolts of electricity into the external environment. Bolts of strong lightning escaped and zapped various areas of the room—one zipped past Cheren's head and struck the wall, another tackled the hat right off of Touya's head, a third whizzed past the mother and coaxed a short scream of surprise, a fourth dazzled in the eyes of Bel as it struck a lamp and overloaded it with power, causing it to spontaneously burst with light, but a good bulk of this electricity latched onto Touko's arm and rode up to her chest.

It was a death scare.

A minute, which seemed like an eternity later, she found herself in tears and guarded by Touya's arms wrapped protectively around her. He had dived forward to yank her away from the sizzling sparks and deadly growls of the now openly hostile Jolteon when the others were so stunned and shocked at eh scene that they were rendered paralyze even without the affliction of the lightning. Yet, Touko wasn't quite in the present—her thoughts blitzed in circles, repeating images of Shinon and Cheren in an endless cycle which slowly ceased and rolled into the present as she detected Touya's voice drenched with slowly growing emotions. As she was coaxed into reality, her sight was immediately attracted to the site of some slight burning sensations—the very hand that had touched the Jolteon. Sure enough, there were stage one burn marks covering the majority of her palm. She flinched, something Touya could feel and worry about at that one moment, but instead of answering him, she, like magnetism, felt her sight drift upwards towards the highest point of the dining room—the tall and slender curio cabinet. Shinon laid there with a triumphant smirk upon his face, but he quickly yawned, flashed a warning glare, and laid his head down to gain some rest. Yet, rest was not an option for him. Immediately and to his utter annoyance, Rolf approached the curio and chirped loud and persistent enough for Shinon's ears to twitch and attention to descend on the creature. However, it was then that Touko, out of all of the humans, noticed a difference in the stature of the Jolteon—as he barked down at the Shinx, there was a considerable change of depth in his eyes. Those coal orbs were more accepting, warmer, albeit only slight, and seemed to reminisce on the past, _on grandpop_, she happily found herself thinking again. Shinon was indeed her biggest problem yet as a Trainer, but he was still a Pokemon with as much feelings as the others. He was not truly malicious.

Before she realized it, Rhys scurried right over to her and applied his miraculous saliva upon her charred and stinging skin while the voices of the humans that seemed so far away now grew with a magnitude that bumped her back into the present, back into the realization that she was perfectly protected in her brother's arms, and back into the feeling of Cheren's hand and concerned words assuring her of safety that not even Touya could provide. The burns, as Rhys inspected, healed completely after five minutes—she noticed by flexing her hand into a fist then back as her eyes finally refocused and settled upon the face of the angel in Pokemon form. He, maybe even more than the humans, was ridden with heavy concern in his eyes and serious frown, but that was all that she needed to be fully exposed to the two extremes of Pokemon behavior. She mulled over the expression and cunning intent of the critical and cunning Jolteon to the kinder expression and wonderful compassion of the smaller and frailer Audino. She had now experienced just a fraction of what it meant to be a Trainer.

With one last firm clasp of Cheren's hand upon her arm, Touko reawakened fully to her surrounding environment, but she awoke to a startling sight. Every human was staring at her, along with some of the Pokemon, with a passionate care that imprinted a reddish blush in her cheeks and her ears. It was even worse when she became aware that her brother's arms were wrapped protectively around her arms and her waist, effectively binding the twins together. The atmosphere of the attention was so great, Touko purposefully looked away to anything else in the room, but her eyes landed on Boyd and that slight concern he, too, held.

"Touko, Touko, answer me." It was Cheren's voice that seemed to linger in her mind as well as his tightening grip upon her bone. Eventually, after much sorting out the past events based on observations alone, Touko dared herself to look at him, to look at those coal eyes flooded over with emotions she had once thought that he never had, to answer a voice that subtly shook with fear, only it wasn't as subtle to her than to the rest. After all, the very last thing she wanted him to do was to worry about her. "Touko, are you all right? Rhys just healed you; nothing else is going to happen." She knew he meant that, but she didn't want to believe it. But Cheren thought differently—since childhood, Touko developed a fear of being sick or injured, but she especially feared death because it was the end of her world. It was too soon to even consider death, she concluded before, but with this incident, when the lightning struck her skin and used her bone and blood fibers as a six-lane freeway, it was about as close a call as any, in her perspective. Even now, she felt the tingles from the strange sensation of electricity pricking straight through every cell, but one last squeeze of Cheren's hand brought her back to him. "But we still need to know if you're all right."

"I think she's starting to get back into it." She heard the vibrations of Touya's voice flood into his chest and onto her back. It was then she finally realized every detail of her surroundings as if the lightning never happened, and it was a moment that she would not soon forget. "Time to wake up, silly." And she felt anger coursing through her veins towards that damnable but sweet brother of hers, but this anger quickly subsided as she rubbed her forehead for a second in thought before even attempting to speak properly.

"Touya, what did…I do?" Her voice landed insecurely in his ears, leading him to believe that she still wasn't fully returned to reality. Yet, he still moved his arms and firmly held onto her shoulders with a small smile full of cheers, but even he couldn't stop pondering over her image as she stood there, silently, taking every shock at its full force. Her face was contorted in pain, but no words or even cries erupted from her lips. The golden and jagged snakes imprisoned her in this silence and tormented her with the agony of burning, ripping and sledding through every one of her cells with absolute zero difficulty. As her body twitched and jerked spasmodically in rhythm with the waves of static, he called her name, dashed from his seat, and yanked her away from the Pokemon. However, he received a few burns on his palms at the same degree as hers.

That fear never fully claimed defeat before rest, despite any smile or cheerful and silly name he could call her; inside, he found a complex of emotions churning around his heart.

"Touko, I told you not to approach that Pokemon!" Her mother had raised her voice for the first time in ages, but it didn't seem to affect Touko much at all. In fact, she slowly let her eyes fall upon the worry that was her mother's face and found herself smiling a little, but she was more thankful to be alive than to be the target of her mother's rage.

"Mom, go easy on her." Touko's ears perked up even more—did she truly hear the very words that had come out of Touya's smiling, happy-go-lucky mouth? For a moment, she thought she was dreaming, floating in some space in some position that mimicked the pressure of the contact with the other humans. For a moment, she had considered that, but in the next, she swung to the conclusion that it was real—every word of it. However, for the life of her, she could not pinpoint exactly why Touya had defended her—for as far back as she could remember, he had always been trying to drag her down into the mud with him, an action that their mother abhorred to the extremes, _especially_ if they decided to enter the house with besmirched clothes, and usually she complied in the heat of the moment, but in the end, he usually left her to hang high-and-dry with intentions of apologizing later. But for now, he was her shield, her protector, and he wasn't going to let their mother's fierce emotions intimidate him. "You passed out, Touko." His attention was now fully on her as she seemed to steady herself without the aid of both his and Cheren's guide. "I had to pull you out of there. What were you even thinking?"

"If you were thinking anything at all?" Cheren added straight after Touya, but his intentions were completely benevolent. As his grip softened, but not as much a Touya's, she turned to his voice, but once she realized their contact, she couldn't stop herself from blushing into a sweet rose color. But this blush quickly vanished once she saw the genuine concern and even frustration in his countenance—his brow was furrowed quite sternly, the corners of his lips bluntly refused to even budge from their solemn state, and his voice was quite cold and harsh than she would've wanted. Yet, she was still thankful that he cared for her with a passion she was sure he would deny. He may just be human, after all.

"I was too eager to befriend that Pokemon. I didn't think about everyone or anything else. I'm sorry." She looked away from everyone while she concluded the ring of her voice, but relief quickly flushed over her body with every release of held breaths, more so when Cheren released his hold and Touya helped her to stand and patted her back in siblinghood. "I'm so sorry, everyone." As if on cue, the humans snapped their attention back to her, some with warming expressions, and others with serious frowns at her voice completely drenched with emotions threatening to express themselves for the worst. Bel was the first to step forth and gently take Touko's hand in her own with that lovely and genuine smile that lit up even the darkest of pathways.

"It wasn't too terrible, Touko. We still have you around. As for that Pokemon," She looked up at Shinon who glowered at her gentle face silently for a few moments before placing his head back down and trying to feign sleep. There was an uneasy air about the room with Shinon's presence, but Bel ignored it and addressed her most courageous friend. "If your grandfather could tame him, so can you! That's what I believe." To emphasize her words, she periodically squeezed her friend's hand, but she lacked physical power to the extremes where she could barely exert any force to harm anyone else. But her passion was there, and it made Touko smile with refreshed confidence. She no longer was apprehensive of her grandfather's Pokemon.


End file.
